Why some of city's public clocks are out of time

8 hours ago

Shirley Henryin Hull

News image — Norman Cammish says clocks need to be oiled and cleaned to keep accurate time

BBC Norman Cammish holding a clock, He has short fair hair and wears glasses and a white lab coat — Norman Cammish says clocks need to be oiled and cleaned to keep accurate time

Several of Hull's best-known public clocks are either stopped or showing the wrong time, including the clock at the recently reopened Maritime Museum.

The Grade II* listed museum reopened on 8 August following a £20m renovation, but its clock remains set at 02:13.

Elsewhere in the city centre, clocks at Hull Minster, Paragon Station and Guildhall have either stopped or drifted out of sync.

A Hull City Council spokesperson said the historic clock mechanisms at the Maritime Museum and Guildhall were maintained by a specialist contractor and that the authority had made contact about the current issues.

The Maritime Museum clock overlooks the historic Princes Dock, where ships once came and went through Hull's Town Dock system.

It was hand-wound every seven days for 150 years before being automated in 2024.

The Floral Clock on Ferensway was installed in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Hull City Council said the clock was now maintained as a decorative feature and had not functioned for several years because of the cost of servicing its mechanism.

At the city's Paragon Station, a four-faced clock on a plinth shows slightly different times depending on which side is viewed, with one face a couple of minutes behind the others.

A collage of four public clocks in Hull, including the Floral Clock on Ferensway, Hull Minster's clock face, a clock on Paragon Station and the clock on Guildhall, all reported to be showing incorrect times or not working. — Hull's Floral Clock, Hull Minster, Paragon Station and Guildhall were among those found to be displaying inaccurate times

In a statement, Transpennine said: "The clock at Hull Paragon is due to receive its routine service, which will ensure it is displaying the correct time.

"In the meantime, there are 30 customer information screens across the station displaying accurate times for passengers to use when planning their journeys," the statement added.

Meanwhile, Hull's unique golden time ball returned to the top of the city's Guildhall in August but the time displayed on its clock is running two minutes fast.

It cost £452,000 to restore and replace the time ball which rises every day at 13:00.

The authority said the Guildhall clock and Hull Time Ball were mechanically separate and operated independently of one another.

A few metres away, the clock dials at Hull Minster, which date from 1913, are stopped at 12:00 while maintenance work is carried out.

A spokesperson for Hull Minster said: "The mechanism for Hull Minster's clock is currently undergoing maintenance, having both its rollers and the chime mechanism itself replaced.

"As a result, the clock will not set the bells to ring on the hour until the maintenance is complete."

Norman Cammish has repaired clocks, barometers and temperature instruments at B Cooke & Son since he was 16 years old.

The firm, based on Market Place, was founded in the 19th Century by clockmaker and optician Barnard Cooke.

Cammish said it was "sad" when Hull's public clocks stopped keeping time and said a lack of maintenance was often to blame.

"It's nice to see them going, but mainly it's just the maintenance they want. You have to keep them clean and oiled.

"If it's there, it might as well be working."

A person wearing glasses and a blue denim jacket stands in a workshop and showroom filled with clocks and measuring instruments. Behind them, a display wall is covered with brass and chrome clocks, barometers and gauges of various sizes, while additional clocks and nautical-themed instruments can be seen around the room. — Priyanka Perera says clock maintenance is a "dying trade"

Managing director Priyanka Perera found a notebook dating back to the 1930s showing the firm's role in maintaining some of the city's clocks.

One entry in the notebook records the company winding a clock at Hull Corporation Markets for £2.12 a year.

Perera said clock maintenance was becoming a "dying trade" as people increasingly relied on other devices to tell the time.

"People are not using them that much. Everybody has their own wristwatch. Maybe there's not enough importance to them anymore because people are carrying their own phones.

"But if you have a clock in the city, it's nice if it shows the right time."

A close-up photograph of an aged lined notebook opened to a handwritten page. The entry is headed "Hull Corporation Markets Committee" and references the winding and regulating of a market hall clock. The record is dated January 1936 and includes a charge of £2.12.0 per year, providing evidence of historical clock maintenance work carried out in Hull. — A notebook shows that B Cooke & Son helped to maintain the city's clocks

Clocks may not be in fashion, but Cammish said the company was carrying out a large amount of repair work on navigational instruments for individual customers.

"We stopped making sextants in the 90s because everybody got sat-navs and didn't want them. Now we've got somebody upstairs repairing sextants all the time because people want to use them again," he added.

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