Time To Start Again in the High Street – Town’s Icon To Be Restored to Working Order

Published on: 30 Jul, 2018
Updated on: 31 Jul, 2018

Repairs to return the High Street clock to working order are expected to be carried out next Tuesday* by clockmakers Smith of Derby, the company also responsible for the clocks at St Paul’s Cathedral and St Pancras Station.

Following a telephone consultation with the clockmakers a “fault with the mechanism” was diagnosed. A Guildford Borough Council spokesperson was unable to say, at this stage, what the cost of the repair will be nor whether any warranty is in place.

The clock, the face of which is dated 1683, stopped at 11.25 on July 24. It is thought that the movement, located within the roof space of the Guildhall, dates from an earlier period.

The clock mechanism inside the roof space of the Guildhall. Don’t take the date of 1683 on the clock case as the age of the clock. These cogs and pieces of movement may be 100 older!

An icon of Guildford, the clock is driven by a gravity system, weights are wound to a position high in the building and as they drop the clock movement is powered.

The winding was done manually until 2012 when an automated winding system was installed. But there have been continuous time-keeping problems ever since, requiring regular manual intervention.

*(not yesterday (July 30) as originally reported)

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