This is by way of an explanation, and apology, for the fact that the Church Clock was stopped for a month in June, I have maintained the Church clock for the last 35 years. It stopped 35 years ago, and because I was interested in clocks, and had the key of the tower, I investigated, and found the pendulum (which weighs 1.5 cwt) had dropped off. I repaired it, and took the clock under my wing, and have looked after it ever since.

When it stopped at the beginning of June, I found that the auto-wind, (which was installed in 1956), had failed. When the weight got to the bottom, the motor started, and wound the weight up. However, when the motor switched off, the weight went back down, turning the motor backwards, until it reached the bottom, and then wound up again – and so on. There is meant to he a ratchet on the motor shaft to prevent the weight from going down. This had self destructed! Here is a picture of the ratchet when I took it off! You can see that it is in a terrible state. Most of the teeth are broken off. It was quite difficult to guess how many teeth it had originally. I gave it to Margaret to count, and we both agreed that it had originally had 24 teeth!

I therefore had to make a new ratchet. I turned a blank on the lathe out of 1.75 inch brass rod. I drew a diagram on my computer of where the teeth should be and glued it on to the blank. 1 also drew a “protractor” on the computer which would enable me to turn the blank through exactly 15 degrees as I cut each tooth. I glued it on to an aluminium sheet and bolted it to the blank and milled the teeth. I then had to undercut them all with a file. The entire job took me several days, but it is nice to have the clock going again.

Here is a photo of the ratchet – before and after!

Also – a picture of it fitted on to the clock-winding motor.

I restarted the clock at 11a.m. It stopped at 1.29 p.m. I restarted it at 2 p.m. and it stopped at 5.29. I restarted it at 5 p.m. and it stopped at 9.29.
I went up at 11 p.m., and looked for a wheel which went round once every four hours, I started the clock, and watched it, and found that one of the brass teeth from the broken ratchet had dropped down and become embedded in the teeth of this wheel, which was stopping the clock every time it came round. I removed the offending tooth,
and the clock has since been going well.
The clock was made in 1880. It has a gravity escapement, (the same as Big Ben), which is very accurate. I regulate it by putting old pennies on the pendulum bob (which is how Big Ben is regulated). It is usually correct to within ten seconds of the pips. Needless to say. it always chooses a time when we’re on holiday to go wrong! This time it stopped the day before we went to visit our son and his family in Paris for a fortnight, which explains why it was stopped for such a long time.