Problems with the Church Clock
Last week, the middle of November, I noticed that the church clock had stopped. It may have been out of action for several days, as it is not very noticeable being behind so many trees. I had not had any comment, so I presume others had not noticed it either.
On climbing the winding stairs and entering the clock-room, it was clear that something was amiss, absolute silence. On opening the cupboard that protects the mechanism, I could see that the whole clock had moved some three inches to the left, and had dropped off the end of the trestle it stands on. The electric winding gears too were out of alignment with the electric motors that drive the mechanism. How it got in this mess I could not fathom immediately.
As the whole clock is too heavy for one person to lift, I called on Sidney Hewitt for assistance. We were able together to replace the clock in the centre of the trestle without too much trouble, but getting the chains back on the proper cogs was more tricky. There were two pieces of wooden lath in the clock -room, which with care and luck enabled us to lift the fifty six pound weight so that the chain could be replaced on it.
So much for the restitution of the parts, but there was still more trouble waiting in the wings. The first job was to restore the night silencing which was seriously out of timing. The mechanism for this, is behind the clock face, and can be set for any time of day or night. It was our bad luck to find that it was eleven hours out of it's proper place. So after switching it off, the hands were turned through the eleven hours, Sidney holding up the rod that makes the bell ring, we did not want to disturb the neighbours.
That put things sort of back in order, but we were not happy that a complete repair had been accomplished. How did it get in this situation in the first place. How was the clock lifted so that it could move? Vandals were ruled out, so it must have been something to do with the elements. Perhaps the high wind. I think the answer lies up in the bell chamber. When the clock tries to lift the hammer to strike the bell, an arm travels downwards, and pulls the cable attached to the hammer, so lifting it ready to dropped and strike the bell.
If something prevented the hammer raising then the clock could be lifted up instead, as there is plenty of power to do just this. As there is plenty of rubbish around the bells , this could be a cause.. I looked at the place where the bell is struck, and all was clear, but it could have fallen off after the damage was done. It was a pity that the proper clock bell is not used , and is standing by it's self on the floor. It will be very difficult to use it again, as it was lowered through the louvres when the tower was covered in scaffolding, easy at the time, but out of bounds to-day.
Having got things in order we started the clock and went home, quite pleased with our afternoons work. Next day on looking at the clock it was twenty minutes fast. Oh dear, what has happened ? I have taken much trouble to get the "rate "of the clock correct, so that Marshall's clock and ours are reasonably in step. I think that when the mechanism dropped off the trestle the pendulum was jarred so that the heavy bob dropped on it's shaft, thus making the pendulum longer, and so slowing the clock down. As the correction for this entails climbing a ladder in the ringing chamber, and getting access through a small trap door to raise the pendulum back to the proper length. Indecently the tick of the clock is only forty beats a minute, rather than the customary sixty of most clocks.
I have been in touch with the TCCT clock man, Mr Colin Walton, who is coming over to fix it, so I shall stop the timepiece for the time being and await the experts to restore order. It illustrates the old adage that thing often go wrong it groups, rather than just one fault.
I must now add a postscript, as there were other things going on as well. The fact of lifting the heavy clock still worried me until yesterday when I stopped the striking movement, as the bell ringing at random times is annoying. It appears that the cog driving the "going train" has moved on the old wooden barrel and comes into contact with the electric winding gears. As this old barrel is far from true it can catch on other gears, which is not good , but harmless unless they are moving. Again bad luck struck again, and the gears collided and lifted the clock. As there was plenty of power, this cog climbed up the other, lifted the mechanism, and pushed it off the trestle.
This event is not easy to describe, but I hope your readers can follow it, and that Mr Walton will fix it soon.