LATEST NEWS!

January 2026

Options studies underway for lighting and heating solutions.

December 2025

Double glazed doors and windows installed in the Church Rooms.

October 2025

Carbon dioxide levels increase by record amount in 2024 (WMO report)

September 2025

Romsey Abbey's Parochial Church Council (the governing body) accepted the Church of England offer for the Abbey to become a Demonstrator Church.

Romsey Abbey

A Church of England Demonstrator project

OUR MISSION

To demonstrate that Romsey’s 1000 year old parish church,

with the support of its congregation and the local community,

can reduce its dependence on fossil fuels for heating and lighting and
preserve and enhance its architecture and heritage
and so lighten our impact of God’s earth as an inspiration to others.

The problem

The Church of England has set itself the target of net zero carbon by 2030. The Abbey's current carbon footprint is around 70 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, of which 50 tonnes is generated from our heating and 20 tonnes from lighting.

Demonstrator church status

As part of its zero carbon strategy, the Demonstrator Churches project from the Church of England’s Net Zero Programme aims to support high carbon emitting churches with zero carbon projects.

As work progresses, the network of Demonstrator Churches - representing many different types of community and situations - will share what they have learned more widely with dioceses and parishes so that all Church of England churches can learn from their experiences.

Romsey Abbey is fortunate to have been selected for Demonstrator Church status and in 2025/26 is receiving support for technical advice for our zero carbon projects. We will then seek support for stage 2, implementation of proposals.

What we are planning to do

Replacing our heating system will have the most dramatic impact on reducing our carbon emissions, but will be a complex project with many factors to consider, including avoiding adverse impacts on the fabric of our Grade I listed building.

Replacing our Abbey spotlight with LEDs can be done more easily, and will tackle the largest user of electricity in the Abbey.

Figure: The Abbey and church rooms annual energy use over the last 10 years.

The dominant part is gas for heating the abbey. For comparison an average three- bedroom house uses 15,000kWh per year.

How low could our zero carbon project take us in the next 10 years?

Our Church Rooms heating system uses elderly gas boilers and needs to be replaced. We can also reduce energy consumption by replacing our doors and windows with double glazing.

St Swithun's church has a very small carbon footprint as it is already heated with electricity generated from renewable sources. We will continue to look for efficiency improvements.

For more detail on each of these projects see the links below.