According to Peter, the St Andrew’s clock is actually in reasonable condition but requires a significant amount of cleaning, a small amount of mechanical repair and a complete re-sprucing of the dial which will be sandblasted back to bare metal prior to being repainted in gold leaf with copper hands affixed.
As you can imagine removing something as large as a church clock from its tower is not a simple process and if you like 3D puzzles this would be a joy. It requires the clock to be disassembled in-situ, with the smaller pieces taken down the tower internally and the larger ones lowered down externally to be reassembled prior to transportation.
The clock, once restored, is reassembled in the workshop to check functionality, transported as a whole then disassembled on site, prior to all the pieces being lifted up the tower and re- assembled again.
Clock building and repair requires a very traditional skill set yet there are elements of the restoration that will use modern methods to aid the process. 3D printers are used to create prototypes for fittings which will then be created using traditional methods, so traditional in fact that the team at the Cumbria Clock Company use a wheel cutting machine that itself was made in the 1700s.
Peter was brought into the trade 20 years ago. He studied Mechanical Engineering at university but decided to stick to something that was in his blood when it came to a career and joined his uncle in his clock building company. The rest, as they say, is history.
The trade is very specialised and those with the specific skill sets required are dwindling, however the company is keen to keep the knowledge alive, offering work experience and placements to university students and pupils.
The restoration process has been taking place over the last few months and the restorers have needed to work in tandem with the main contractor regarding the re-installation to ensure that the scaffolding, which might damage the dial in its return journey up the tower, has been removed. The moment when everyone can finally breathe again is when the dial has made it up its external hoist and is in situ once more.
