CLOCK IN ENGLAND IS 500 YEARS OLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 11

CLOCK IN ENGLAND IS 500 YEARS OLD.

What may prove to be the earliest turret clock in England is being examined where it lies, silent and rusting, in the first chamber of the Great Tower of Salisbury Cathedral, says the “ Daily Mail.” Mr A. Tremayne, through Mr R. P. Howgrave-Graham. the antiquary, has begun investigations which have aiready established that the mechanism of the clock existed in 1380. That is six years before the earliest record ol the Wells clock now in the Science Museum at South Kensington. The Salisbury clock was originally installed in a 13th-century belfry in the cathedral close, and when this was destroyed in 1790 the clock was removed to the Great Tower, where it continued to work until it was supplanted in 1884 by a modern movement. Mr Howgrave-Graham states that an interesting feature is the hand wheel for winding the gong—as distinct from the striking—part. It is of a primitive character, but not in itself evidence of very early date. The wtriking mechanism is more primitive than that of the Wells clock, and there are numerous reasons for believing the two movements to be the work of one man. The fact that the Salisbury clock struck only the hours, while that of ' Wells struck the quarters, also leads Mr llowgrave-Graham to think that he may have come across a case of the actual evolution of the 14th-century : clockmakers’ methods. He thinks that not only is the Salisbury clock probably the earliest turret clock in Britain, but also it may be the earliest remaining clock in the world which had a dial. Mr llowgrave-Graham declares that only a little work at a trifling cost would be required to make the clock go for many hundreds of years.