A Fine Restoration Project – Floral Clock

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

(Professionally done but I think a Friends group put a lot into it too.)

This the Floral Clock in Weymouth’s Greenhill Gardens, and out of only eight such clocks surviving around the country it is one of the only two still with mechanical movement, and the only one working after a long restoration. The other is in Southport.

The clock had become disused and neglected, and its movement shed was disappearing into a bush.  The movement was still in fair condition and all there though, and while that was away being overhauled a new home was built for it, matching architecturally a nearby shelter.  The movement now stands up on a steelwork frame, making it clearly visible as intended, as well as more accessible for maintenance.

Weight-driven, 24-hour; with hour and quarters cuckoo pipes controlled by a form of locking-plate which, if I have identified it correctly as that, is of crown rather than spur rim form. The cuckoo sound is generated by two organ-pipes each with its own bellows operated by a falling weight. The minute hand is moved on the minute, not continuously. The hands are linked to the movement by shafts running through buried conduits.

I photographed it today, in hot sunshine.

General view with the movement hut beyond the face.

 

 

The smaller fly, beyond the pendulum and above the going weight, is on the minute-hand driver. A glimpse of the locking-plate is just visible to the right. The massive weight in the foreground is for the “cuckoo” train. The notice on it tells you not to worry that it does not hang horizontally – it does not affect the action! The tops of the bellows are just visible below it. This also shows the clock’s new plinth.

 

Part of the pendulum bob in its pit. The cuckoo bellows and their operating weights: the movement raises then lowers them in turn with sufficient force to make the “cuck” and “oo”.

I am not sure how readable the information boards may be, but offer them anyway. Magnifying the screen might work. I took all the photographs on a small hand-held camera without tripod, so the quality is not as it ought be.

 

 

Finally but not least, the dedication. The completion ceremony was actually this year:

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for sharing that, Nigel

MichaelG.

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Edit: __ Just found this:

https://greenhill-gardens.co.uk/clock-house-in-greenhill-gardens-weymouth/

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thankyou Michael – I’ve just read that linked site!

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