Bawdrip Church Clock Restoration

Well thanks to an anonymous donor we now have a beautifully restored clock face. After almost a year in the planning the actual work seemed to take no time at all. Having been approached by the donor with the suggestion of restoring the clock face I had to find out the price and suitable restorers.

Luckily a year or two previously Woolavington Church had had their clock face expertly restored. Liaising with Alan Miller immediately turned up the name of the man who did the work, Mr David Jones of David Jones Clocks from Helston in Cornwall.

An initial site survey took place late last year and he gave a price and indicated that it would be possible to affect the restoration via a boson’s chair. This was important as otherwise he would have needed to use expensive scaffolding to provide access to the clock face. By this time though it was too late in the year to do the work – the paint-work apparently lasts a lot longer if it can be applied when the atmospheric conditions are drier.

This meant that we had to wait until the spring of this year before proceeding.

Then it was a case of applying through the Archdeacon for a ‘de minimus’ and confirming with the church architect that he was happy for the work to be carried out. The ‘de minimus’ is where the archdeacon is able to approve work to be done to the church building. Approval was granted, and the work scheduled in.

The photos show the work at various stages including the completed face. It now has multiple layers of metal treatment, undercoating and top coating with all the numbers, lettering and hands finished with 23 caret gold.

It looks fantastic and should last us a good long time. Local memory has it that the previous restoration was carried out sometime in the 50’s so we look forward to another 50 plus years of shining clock face. I have tried to find information about Dell &Co from Bristol (who’s name is now visible on the clock face) but have not turned anything up yet. If anyone knows anything about them I would appreciate hearing it.

Finally, I would like to say a very big thank you to the donor who made it all possible.

Article from Link Magazine September 2004