Evesham, St Andrew’s Church

Earlier this year we carried out a dial restoration of the two copper convex dials at St Andrew’s Church Evesham.

The dials were unusual as they were two different sizes, the south dial is a memorial to the first world war.

The dials were traced out, so we could replicate the original chapters. they were then chemically cleaned to remove all the old and flaking paintwork.

The dials were then painted the original colour. we then sized and gilded the dial with 23 ½ carat English Gold Leaf.

The dials were once again restored  to the tower using new stainless steel fixings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wellow, St Swithin’s Church

We were asked to restore the dial at St Swithin’s Church Wellow. When we removed the dial back to our workshop and started to dismantle it, it became apparent the dial had become very unstable in condition.

After much discussion between the Church and the Diocesan clock advisor, it was decided the original dial was beyond repair and conservation and the best way forward would be to manufacture and new dial to replicate the original from Stainless Steel.

The Minster Church of St Mary, Stow in Lindsey

Our clockmakers Steve and Mike have recently been installing two automatic winding units and automatic regulation to a hour strike clock located in this historic Anglo-Saxon Minster Church in Lincolnshire. The cage clock has a deadbeat escapement and drives the hands on a skeleton dial located on the south side of the 15th century tower. Following our work the clock no longer requires weekly winding and regulation, the clock will also complete BST/GMT time changes by stopping then restarting the pendulum.

New Clockmaker starts this week

This week we have been joined by our new apprentice clock maker Mike to the team. This week he has assisted Steve with installing a new automatic winding system on a quarter chime clock at Staveley installed in 1865 by John Moore and Sons.
More to follow…

Brough, Festival of Britain clock, Derbyshire.

During November, Time Assured restored The Brough Festival of Britain Clock back to working order. This historic and iconic local landmark was originally manufactured and installed around 60 years ago. The owners refurbished the dial a little while ago, and they now wanted a working clock rather than a piece static albeit highly decorative sculpture.
The design of the dial is highly influenced by the themes of Ancient Rome and the Festival of Britain.
Surrounding the dial are the letters A N A V I O. This is the old roman name for the village of Brough. The hour hand proudly bears the Roman ‘Aquila’ symbol (Golden Eagle) and the minute hand bears the Roman ‘Signum’ or spear symbol, together with further representations depicting an axe and a shield.
The celebration of the Festival of Britain influence is depicted with a large ‘compass style’ red and white cross with a prominent blue figurehead of Britannia at the top all located inside the numeral perimeter. The mechanism itself is a G & F Cope & Co timepiece with three legged gravity escapement and automatic winding. After refurbishment, it is now ticking away merrily in a busy office much to the delight of its proud and very friendly owners and staff

Epworth Mechanics Institute, Lincolnshire.

The clock movement is an electric synchronous T4 movement manufactured by William Potts and Sons. This drives an approximately 2ft square dial GRP dial with a raised wooden border. The dial is gilded with roman numerals, minute, five-minute marks which are between two perimeter outer rings, hands, and the script ‘EMI’, ‘1837’,’19’,’82’ placed sequentially in the four corners of the dial.

The hands on the clock dial were damaged and are possibly interfering with each other. The gilding was fading, and the perimeter wooden frame was in a poor state and in places pieces were missing. We installed a new clock movement and controller, together with a new GRP dial with a new wooden border, and the original gilding replicated, together with a vandal resistant PETG cover glass.