Inside Langport Clock - photographed this week.
Generations come and go, shops and businesses move in and out - and passing underneath down on Bow Street whether it's a humble horse and cart or a Morris Minor or one of today's futuristic electric cars....this old beauty has seen it all.
The Victorian mechanism which runs Langport Clock was photographed up in the town hall attic yesterday morning.
The clock sits in this wooden box, up in the rafters in the roof. Scribbled in pencil on the inside of one of the doors, we found "Clock face repainted September 1936"
Inside, the workings bear two painted plaques. One reads "J.W Benson, Ludgate Hill, London" and the other says "Clockmaker to the Queen and the Prince of Wales"
Benson moved his business to Ludgate Hill in 1855 and died in 1878 so, until we find more detailed records, we can only narrow down the year our clock was made to that period.
Either way, the machine is in good company. Benson not only made clocks for Queen Victoria and Edward VII, but also the royal families of Europe including the Romanovs.
The mechanism, which is serviced every year, is now wound by an electric motor and is deadly accurate - in fact the old bell up on the roof chimes the hour just as BBC Radio Four is playing the pips...impressive.
- and like all old clocks, it needs a pendulum:
Biggest swinger in Langport apparently.
Meanwhile, the fundraising to find the money to pay for the restoration of the clock faces is expected to begin sonetime next month.
More later.
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SELF STOREAGE CONTAINERS NEAR LANGPORT
Just a mile up the road from Podimore Roundabout
20ft x 8ft and completely secure with CCTV for just £85 per month.
Unlimited access 24/7
Call Andrew on 07932657140 or 01458-223250
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Every week at The Black Swan
Langport
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