The bell of the ancient Wickwar Town Hall clock began striking once again yesterday (13th October) after a break of more than six months. The connecting wire from the clock mechanism to the bell in the turret, which had been slowly deteriorating over many years, finally snapped following high winds back in the spring. The wire has now been replaced, but you may have noticed that the clock face has disappeared! There will now be a rather strange period of around 6 weeks when there will be no clock face on the Town Hall, although the bell will be back to chiming the hour.
After consulting the community, we decided to not only repair the clock, but to use the opportunity of having a cherry picker on site to remove the blue and gold clock face for restoration. It has now been transported back to Cumbria where the work will take place. Around the country councils are planning how they will celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, marking her 70 years on the throne. We would like to mark the occasion by refurbishing the clock face; a fitting tribute especially as it was last renovated in 1977 to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee!
Thanks are due to our contractors, the Cumbria Clock Company, who did a fantastic job of the repair whilst residents looked on. We would also like to thank the residents on the High Street who helped us on repair day by kindly saving the parking spaces in front of the Town Hall. Tony Gardham, a keen photographer from the village, captured the event in still shots and video, and has offered to edit a video of the occasion to go on this website in due course. Finally, we would like to thank the residents of Wickwar for your patience whilst we arranged for this work to take place.
