Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 18th December, 2023)

Lovely Church and Christmas tree Poet, the old lamp stands out on the pillar. Shame about the clock not working, a key feature to the Church and brings the Church to life when the clock strikes on the hour and chimes on each quarter.
St Peters Church in Hindley is the same, the clock been silent for ages now and seems to be forgotten part of the Church.

Why can't these church clocks be repaired, quite a few don't work.
St Bartholomew Church in Westhoughton never fails and has
a beautiful slow strike and chime. Who is responsible for them.

The problem is repairing a Church Clocks how do you get to it.
Scaffolding?
Do they ever get serviced and lubricated? Who pays for the maintenance?
Excellent photo.

Fantastic photo Poet, Christmas tree looks great.
Merry Christmas all.

Ann, Parish Contractors look after the well being of Churches.
Thanks Poet.

Quite a few church clocks are silent at present - including Christ Church Charnock Richard where I'm filling in at present. I'm posting a pic of the mechanism in St Wilfrid's tower - all the works are inside, so the only external access required is for the faces and hands and - as at St Wilfrid's, the frame in which the faces are set.

Thanks Rev, that will be most interesting.

To the right you can see the old reliable sun dial over the porch . It's sticking out like an A shape .
The sun here is pretty much in full beam on the south face so the clock is actually about right .

How many graves do you have to fill in a week Rev David Long ?

When that fire gutted St Bartholomew's it broke my heart seeing it afterwards, but they did a great job of renewing it although with a modern twist and not back to original. When I was a nipper going to school at the Parochial just across the road we spent quite a lot of time in the church and it always looked so big inside and religious if you know what I mean.

I'm actually a part-time dentist, Tom, not a grave-digger.

Rev , can you help me with this one please . Why could the face not be on the mechanism and pulled inside together to maintain ? Why set the face in place. What am I missing ? Forgive my ignorance .

Ha ha ha LOL. Well said Rev David Long.
A man of many talents.

Dave - I expect that it would be possible nowadays to construct a tower clock with faces which could be inserted from inside the tower and sealed with modern plastics and mastics, but when most church clocks were installed they had to be fitted and secured from the outside to prevent rainwater getting past into the tower.

Good photo Poet and I like how you have the
Star , the Steeple and the lovely old fashioned lamp in focus. The Church itself has stood the test of time …it can be forgiven for time standing still. It’s not as if people have to rely on the Church steeple clock as in days of yore.
Wrist watches, smart phone etc have seen to that. But it’s still nice to see dependable Church clocks working and chiming the hours away.

We have some relatives buried in St Wilfrids and my cousin informed me that on her last visit a large tree had fallen an disturbed some of the graves. Ive recently moved from Bognor to Hasting, after my husband inherited a property after one of his family passed away.

Rev David, Ive been to a lot of funerals at St John's in Pemberton and Ive only ever seen the man who had dug the grave fill them in.

Sylvia - a large beech tree was blown down two years ago - and was cleared away in the following January... it caused some damage to older graves. The logs are still keeping me warm these cold winter nights.

Rev , can you help me with this one please . Why could the face not be on the mechanism and pulled inside together to maintain ? Why set the face in place. What am I missing ? Forgive my ignorance .