The Clocks

Each of our two parish churches has a turret clock installed in its tower. Both are of "flat bed" construction, an arrangement that was first adopted in the early 19th century, and largely took over from the framed ("birdcage") layout of previous centuries.

The St Andrew Clock

This clock was made by Caydon & Sons in 1892, as is engraved on the setting dial thus : "Caydon & Sons. / Clockmakers to the Queen / Kingston on Thames / 1892".

There is also a dedication plaque engraved:
"Presented / by / Major Howell Shepherd / in memory of his wife / May 5th 1892. / Charles Burney. Archdeacon. Vicar / Legk C. Calley / John Durham / Churchwardens".

The clock has two trains. The time train (with a Graham deadbeat escapement and a two-seconds pendulum), and the strike train controlled by countwheel, which is the type most frequently found on turret clocks. George Graham (1673-1751), the important horological designer and maker of regulator longcase clocks and marine chronometers, developed this escapement about 1715 to considerably improve the timekeeping of clocks used in astronomical observatories and clockmakers' workshops. Both trains were fitted with electric winding motors and night strike silencing in the early 1970s.

There are three backlit dials facing West, North and East.

The St Mark Clock

This clock was made by Thomas Cooke & Sons In 1860, as declared on the engraved setting dial thus:
"T Cooke & Sons. / 1860 / York.".

There is also a cast plaque on the frame reading:

"Reconstructed by / John Smith & Sons / Clockmakers / Midland Clock Works, Derby, Ltd / Derby 1972".

The clock has three trains – time, strike (countwheel) and bim-bam strike on the quarter hours (not at present functioning). The time train had a Denison gravity escapement and two-seconds pendulum, but unfortunately the escapement was dismantled (and the pendulum disengaged) in 2002, when they were ill-advisedly replaced by a synchronous electric motor. Thomas Cooke (1807-1868) was an inspirational maker of some renown who was better known as an instrument maker, and successfully used (and also modified) Denison's escapement in several versions. Edmund Beckett Denison (later to become Sir Edmund Beckett in 1874 and subsequently be made Lord Grimthorpe in 1886) was a barrister and an MP, as well as a mathematician, architect and horologist. He is probably best known as the designer of the Westminster Great Clock ("Big Ben" - actually the nickname of the hour bell) and the invention of the escapement named after him in1851. It is interesting to note that this was only nine years before the Cooke clock was made.

There is one backlit dial facing South.

Harry Gilmore 28 June 2011