St Mary's Tower Clock - Introduction & Downloads
Virtual Tour – Take an interactive tour of the clock tower
Picture Gallery – Photos and drawings of the restoration
Clock Keeper's Manual - A fascinating insight turret clocks. Download (912KB)
How it works. What makes a clock tick. Download (364 KB)
Tower Clock History – 700 years in the making. Download (944KB)
St Mary's History – From 1856 to present day. Download (172KB)
EJ Dent – Life & times of the clock maker. Download (412KB)
Big Ben – St Mary's clock's famous brother. Download (224KB)
The Tower Clock
Thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund the tower clock at St Mary’s is now fully restored and open to the public.
The clock was originally installed in 1877 and was made by EJ Dent – the famous 19th Century maker of many turret clocks, including Big Ben.
The clock at St Mary’s is charmingly described as a ‘flat bed, ding-dong’ and it chimes the quarter and hour, though it now has a night silencer for the benefit of our neighbours – and the Vicar.
The clock tower is open to the public every week at the following times:
Monday evenings 6.30pm – 8.00pm
Wednesday mornings 9.45am – 11.00am
Saturday mornings 10.00am – 1.00pm.
There are worksheets for children and a leaflet showing the clock, a brief history of turret clocks and the story relating our clock to Big Ben.
If you’d like to come along and see the clock, please do not hesitate to contact us.
St Mary's PCC would like to thank The Heritage Lottery Fund, The Council for the Care of Churches and Fr David Birt for their generous help in obtaining the grants for this project. Thanks also to Caroline Moyes, Ellie Dusic, Kirsten Baker, Rebbecca Sparkes for their help with the research and planning of this project.
Fr Andrew Cain June 2006