In 1919 voluntary subscriptions from this parish provided a war memorial tablet in the church costing £20 and a clock with two dials, facing West and North, costing £160.
That same clock remains today. It is powered by two weights, each one approximately 125kg. These have to be wound each week by hand from ground level to 37 feet high.
The clock winders to date have been :-
Henry R Hallett from October 1919
George Guppy from October 1950
John Hawkins from January 1975
[Clock out of order 1995 to 1999]
Neville Coe from May 1999
Alan Bailey from June 2005
The main mechanism of the clock was overhauled by Humphrey Hamilton of Montacute in the Spring of 1999.
At the same time the hands and numerals were gilded by John Burton of East Coker. The total cost of this work was £1652.
Close up after gilding
In 2000 I carried out repairs to the wooden enclosure of the clock mechanism and found the following names inscribed:-
Sydney Gibbons 1919
S.Shire 1919
C.G. Hallett 1919
J.Andrews
H.Vincent
Unfortunately in 1999 the sub-mechanisms which pass through the North and West walls of the tower to the hands of the clock had not been serviced. Early in 2000 Arthur Harris found the North minute hand, complete with 5 centimetres of shaft, at the foot of the tower. In order for the sub-mechanism to be withdrawn into the tower; the hour hand had to be removed from the outside.
To this avail, on December 26th Peter Sakulku abseiled down the outside of the tower and attempted to remove the hand. This attempt failed and scaffold had to be erected.
In January 2001, I removed the hand and sub-mechanism, turned a new shaft (on a lathe lent by John Guppy) and restored the clock to its former glory. That year the cost of materials, scaffolding & regilding amounted to £456. For the mechanically minded, I noted that there was then one and a half minutes of play in the mechanism.
Pete abseiling 2000
Bruce & yours truly 2001
Rick & Keith 2003
That should have been the end of my tale: however in 2003 our old friend had another seizure. Rain from the sill above the face of the clock had seeped in between the minute shaft and the hour shaft. Out came the sub-mechanism once more. I cleaned the shafts and fitted a lubrication system, (designed by Chris Dixon and myself). The hands were refitted by Rick Pallister and Keith Lewis using a ‘cherry picker’.
50cm rule shows length of
hand
parts removed
during repairs
In December 2009 repairs to the church tower (pointing of the stonework near the clock face) were carried out by “Sally Strachey Historic Conservation” and hopefully will help to prevent further egress of water into the clock mechanism.
photo © Andy Sinclair