Church clock restoration uncovers its historic significance

The community of St Catherine’s Church, Montacute, has been told by experts that it may be home to one of the oldest working timepieces in the country, follow a recent assessment that dates its clock back to the 1400s.
Originally believed to have been made in the 1600s, around the time of the Reformation, the clock’s historical significance was uncovered during a restoration assessment in 2024. Mark Lidster, the Buildings Adviser for the Diocese of Bath and Wells, who is also the Clocks Adviser to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches (DAC), concluded that the clock’s mechanism predates many known medieval timepieces.

The clock was removed on Thursday, 20 March under the watchful eye of the Montacute church and village community, including 200 children from the local school, as well as local television news crews and members of diocesan support services who have assisted the church on all aspects f the restoration. A fundraising effort is now underway to support the clock’s restoration and the church’s plans to create a dedicated exhibition space, featuring audio-visual presentations on its history. Restoration work will now begin. A special rededication ceremony is planned for summer 2025 on the clock’s return. The service will mark its historical and cultural importance and also honour all the volunteers who have maintained it over the years.

Nic Lacock, Churchwarden of St Catherine’s, who is leading the project to restore the clock, says, “Discovering the hugely significant antiquity of the Montacute clock has been an incredible experience for me, the church community and the whole of the village. Verifying its possible manufacturing date, piecing together that it was in all probability made in the village smithy from iron ingots, probably sourced in the hills around Montacute, was exciting enough. However, the greatest joy of this has been uncovering the human stories behind it. Of Humphrey Hamlin’s remarkable determination to conserve the clock, the incredible service of Eric Rogers, and the links to the Baker family whose ancestors made the dial in 1815 in the house where Humphrey now lives.

He adds, “The clock has served the village for centuries and it seems only right that it is given the opportunity to tell its own story to the present-day village and the wider world. Already the community has come behind our project to share that story in a host of creative ways, and I am sure that the clock is at the start of a very exciting new chapter of its story.”

The clock has been a central part of Montacute village life, maintained by dedicated volunteers, including the late Eric Rogers, who wound it daily for 67 years, reportedly never taking a holiday to ensure its upkeep. Eric inherited the duty in 1914, after promising his uncle Maurice, the previous caretaker, he’d keep the clock running while he went to fight in the Great War. Tragically, Maurice never returned. When Eric retired, local engineer and clock enthusiast Humphrey, who is now 93, took over its upkeep, ensuring its continued operation, even taking the clock down to repair it in his workshop in 1987. Humphrey said, “they told me it couldn’t be repaired – and I thought ‘that’s nonsense’ so I asked to be allowed to do it.”

In addition to the clock, restoration efforts have revealed other historical artifacts, including a set of large iron keys dating back perhaps to Reformation times. These items will be displayed alongside the clock when it is reinstalled in the church.

Through the project to celebrate the history of the clock, the church hopes to strengthen community ties by celebrating the country’s rich heritage and give the 4,000 plus annual visitors to the church a chance to see the historic working timepiece, thanks to improved lighting and the installation of a camera feed of the interior of the clock tower.