Church Clock Blues

We have become familiar with all kinds of clocks.  From small ones to large ones.  There are variety of clocks such as alarm clocks, those you can hang on the walls, under the cabinets, cuckoos, and grandfathers.  The list goes on and on.  However, there is a special timepiece that hangs outside the church.  

Churches have a special importance within the history of public clocks because they contain many surviving examples of the early ones, and part of the early history and craftsmanship of clock making.

Some of the most famous names in clock making can be found in churches.  There are quite a variety of clocks still being maintained in England’s churches.  They can be called the earliest machines still serving their purpose.

The first example of mechanical clocks took place in churches and cathedrals.  Four of the earliest surviving clocks from Tudor and Elizabethan times are still working in churches.  The principal clock was St. Paul’s cathedral in London, five hundred years before Big Ben was built.

Clocks of great age remain in their proper place, telling the time for the parish.  There are a variety from early blacksmith-made clocks through the fine craftsmanship of the 17th and 18th centuries to the Victorian, whose inventive and precise engineering, brought these clocks to perfection.

They need frequent winding and regular service.  Sometimes they fall into disrepair, making them costly to put back in good condition, and then they are considered to be replaced by electric clocks.

It is possible to place a number of them in museums, but they are made to fit in particular buildings.  The church clocks are better preserved in their place.  To transplant  them to a museum would involve harsh uprooting from their environment, and separation of the mechanism from the bells and dials.

These clocks live the life of a hermit, shut away in towers with difficult access.  They are often in locked cupboards for protection from dust and pigeons.  Their only company is a weekly visit from the winder, and an annual visit from a technician.

Automatic winders reinforce the isolation, doing away with even the smallest contact with the outside world.  Visitors are discouraged because of safety considerations, so they are easily forgotten.  Unlike domestic clocks that are made to be ornamental, they were built without any pretension of show.  

They are worth befriending as they have a special charm.  Their beauty lies in the functioning of their gears, and the polished metal of their precision parts.