Hungerford Virtual Museum

Website produced and maintained for the Hungerford Historical Association
by Hugh Pihlens

[Home] [Artefacts] [Events] [People] [Places] [Themes] [Timeline] [Archives] [Search]

You are in [Themes] [Town Clocks]

All towns benefited by having a central, easily seen time-piece. In many towns, this was located in the tower of the parish church - but in Hungerford, the parish church lies well away from the main street, in The Croft. In Hungerford, the town clock (and before it the sundial) was on the Town Hall.

The responsibility for clocks and sun dials fell to the Constable, and records of payments made for work maintaining them therefore appear in the Constables' Accounts. Follow this link to see the transcription of the Constables' Accounts (Town Clock extracts) 1658-1759.

These show that the people responsible for the maintenance of the Town Clock appear to have been:

- 1658-1676:   Nicholas May of Inkpen
- 1677-1684:   Richard May of Inkpen
- 1685-1692:   John Tubb
- 1693:            Zachary Turton
- 1694–1698: Zachary Turton and Mr Holloway
- 1699-1701:   Zachary Turton
- 1701-1745:   John Tubb "the Cutler" (died c1746)
- 1746-1749:   William Tubb
- 1750-1762:   Jonathan Bird (Bellman 1718-1768)
- 1763–c1779: Edward Woodham (clockmaker
          of 1 High Street)
- c1779-1789: James Woodham (son of Edward
          Woodham)

The amount paid per year for winding the clock and general maintenance appears to have been:

1658: 1s 0d
1659: 1s 6d
1665: 2s 6d
1677: 3s 0d
1683: 5s 0d
1685: 7s 0d
1687: 10s 0d
1698: 15s 0d
1710: £1 5s 0d
1716: £1 6s 0d
1722: £1 10s 0d
1762: £2 0s 0d

The expense of the clock varied each year depending on what work was required. It seems the bell rope needed frequent replacement.

A new clock was installed in 1687 at a cost of about £15.

Nevertheless, it seems that there was still a place for the town sun dial, as the Constables' Accounts for 1708 Mr Hawkins was paid 5s "for mending the sun diall", with a further 1s 6d paid to "poore men who wase assisting in itt".

In the same year Mr John Butler was paid 8d for "hingis for the clocke dore".

Mr John Tubb was the usual keeper of the clock, but there were some periods when Mr Cutler performed this task. Others who assisted by supplying spares and equipment for the clock included Adam Betteridge "for the clock line", and Mr Woodroffe for "Wire for the clock".




	The 1607 Town Hall in 1769 showing the clock on the north gable



		The 1786 Town Hall, from a paining by G. Shepherd, 1821


	The 1786 Town Hall, with its original cupola, c1861


			The 1786 Town Hall, with its new clock-tower incorporating Mr Hall's clock, c1862



The 1786 Town Hall, with its empty clock tower, with the new 1871 Town Hall beyond, housing Mr Hall's clock.

In June 1862, Mr. Hall, the Magistrate's Clerk, gave to the town a grand new clock. Mr Hall was a solicitor who lived in a house on the west side of the lower High Street. He retired c1861, and his house was demolished to make way for the building of the first railway bridge across the High Street in 1862.
^ top ^
To accommodate Mr Hall's new clock, a new clock-tower was built on the existing Town Hall. The clock had three faces, there being no benefit from a west-facing dial, given the close proximity to the adjacent buildings.

Perhaps this bulky clock tower resulted in damage to the 1786 building - because within a few years it was decided to build a completely new Town Hall and Corn Exchange, which was completed in 1871.

The new clock-tower was much higher, and the fourth, west-facing dial was added for the benefit of those people living along Church Street and the west of the town. The left face was therefore slightly different to the other three. All had cast-iron numerals and decoration.

Local people were used to the sound of the bells striking through the day and night, but some visitors to the Three Swans Hotel on the other side of the market place often complained of disturbed sleep by the quarter-hour chimes through the night. Ernest Clements, a clock and watchmaker at 1 Bridge Street, made a device that silenced the chimes for 7 hours in each 24 hours. Unless everything was correctly adjusted, however, the period of silence was not always at night!
^ top ^
It is said that during the Second World War, a member of the Home Guard took a shot at the eastern clock face when on an exercise near the railway station. Two faces were renewed in the 1950s as the glass and cast-iron frames had begun to fracture. The south face was made of opaque plastic, and let little light through.

The clock mechanism included a wooden-shafted pendulum, whose length gave it a two-second movement. There were three weights, which needed to be lifted each week - on a full wind it would run for nine days.

This weekly winding of the clock was carried out by the Bellman Robin Tubb until 1999. However, when mobile phone transmitters were placed in the tower, there were anxieties about spending time in very close proximity to the transmitters. An automatic winding mechanism, incorporating three electric motors, was installed. This did not relieve Robin of the need to access the tower, as time adjustments still had to be made manually.

At the same time, it was necessary to replace the old cast-iron faces with acrylic ones (to allow the microwave transmissions through). It is said that the east face had a neat little hole faithfully put in the same position as in the original - although the Administrator is unable to see it in 2010! The numerals and hands are made of glass fibre. The redundant parts of the old dials are safely stored.

In 2009 a new addition was made to the Victorian clock. In place of the pendulum regulating the clock, an electric motor, drives the old clock mechanism, and has removed the need for regular adjustment. It even handles the spring and autumn time changes of British Summer Time. (With thanks to Robin Tubb, Bellman, and Trustee of the Town & Manor of Hungerford.)

Updated: 20.12.2010