A CHURCH clock which has been stuck at three minutes to two-o-clock for more than a decade, will soon be working again thanks to a recent legacy from a parishioner's will.

The opportunity to restore the clock at St Mary's Priory Church came when the bequest gave the parochial church council (pcc) the funds to restart the clock after it had stood still for 12 years.The original workings were mechanical but 60 years ago it was converted to electrical power, but not only had the old electrical motor packed up, the hands had also meshed together."Even the plug sockets were the old round pin style from over 50 years ago" said Grahame Thomas who sits on the church's committee for the building and fabric of St Mary's.Grahame remembers when the church used the services of the Elias brothers in town who would adjust the old electrical clock, but they then retired "and we couldn't get anyone, then the clock stopped and it wasn't a case of finding someone to wind it up, we needed to replace the motor and the wiring" he explained.The trustees for the church agreed the legacy could be spent on refurbishing the power supply, so Grahame then searched the country for a firm of steeplejacks and clocksmiths to carry out the work to not only restart the clock but to fix the hands.He eventually found Stuart Morrison, a fully qualified steeplejack and clocksmith with the Cumbria Clock Company of Penrith who was able to replace the old electrical motor and repair the hands of the clock. Stuart, who had been in the trade for over 50 years, had just finished work on Canterbury Cathedral and Manchester Town Hall before coming to work on St Mary's.Stuart came down in September to free the hands of the clock that had stuck together and took away all the linkages, as pictured above.He returned Monday of this week and installed the new Italian-made electric motor and radio controlled mechanism so that the clock now picks up the transmissions from the MSF radio signal transmitted from Anthorn Radio Station in Cumbria, a dedicated standard-frequency and time broadcast that provides an accurate and reliable source of UK civil time.The signal, formerly known as the Rugby signal, is available 24 hours a day across the whole of the UK and operates on a frequency of 60 kHz carrying a time and date code that can be received and decoded by radio-controlled clocks.Grahame explained: "So the clock will now automatically compensate when summer time begins and when it ends and if it is ever decided to scrap the daylight saving hour, the clock has the feature built in to allow for that."The good news is the workings have a 10 year guarantee" and added "now following our pleas to Monmouthshire County Council, we have a new lampost installed by the path, so we have a clock that is always visible, and is always right!"A CHURCH clock which has been stuck at three minutes to two-o-clock for more than a decade, will soon be working again thanks to a recent legacy from a parishioner's will.The opportunity to restore the clock at St Mary's Priory Church came when the bequest gave the parochial church council (pcc) the funds to restart the clock after it had stood still for 12 years.The original workings were mechanical but 60 years ago it was converted to electrical power, but not only had the old electrical motor packed up, the hands had also meshed together."Even the plug sockets were the old round pin style from over 50 years ago" said Grahame Thomas who sits on the church's committee for the building and fabric of St Mary's.Grahame remembers when the church used the services of the Elias brothers in town who would adjust the old electrical clock, but they then retired "and we couldn't get anyone, then the clock stopped and it wasn't a case of finding someone to wind it up, we needed to replace the motor and the wiring" he explained.The trustees for the church agreed the legacy could be spent on refurbishing the power supply, so Grahame then searched the country for a firm of steeplejacks and clocksmiths to carry out the work to not only restart the clock but to fix the hands.He eventually found Stuart Morrison, a fully qualified steeplejack and clocksmith with the Cumbria Clock Company of Penrith who was able to replace the old electrical motor and repair the hands of the clock. Stuart, who had been in the trade for over 50 years, had just finished work on Canterbury Cathedral and Manchester Town Hall before coming to work on St Mary's.