General notes on St. Michael’s church.
St. Michael’s church, Buckland was built in the early 13th century from golden Cotswold stone and is Grade 1 listed. It was built under the aegis of St. Peter’s Abbey, Gloucester. The tower is mainly 14th century and the top section and parapets were added in the 15th century. The nave and chancel are wainscoted in oak (1615) and the font is 15th century. The chancel is lighted on either side by 15th century clear glass. The eastern window is mediaeval stained glass of an early period depicting the arms of the Abbey of Gloucester and representing the sacraments of baptism, matrimony and extreme unction. These windows were re-pieced, restored and re-leaded around 1880 due to the initiative and under the direction of William Morris. Subsequently these windows have been completely restored by Canterbury Cathedral Studios in 1997. The floor of the south aisle was laid in the 15th century encaustic tiles and bear the arms of Beauchamp (Earl of Warwick ) and are believed to have been made at the Malvern Tilery and were formerly at Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire. The Roof trusses are rich in mediaeval paintings which were exposed recently during restoration work on the roof in 1984.
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History and general description of clock & chime machine.
The clock was made by Thomas Steight & Son of Pershore, Worcestershire, and installed circa 1709. Thomas Steight (who died in January 1733/4) and his son John (1696 - 1777) were provincial makers of turret clocks and chimes, whose importance has only recently been recognised. The extent of their business and influences clearly illustrated by a list at the British Library, ref: 1887.a.9(15). The list which covers their production between 1699 to 1752 not only lists 59 turret clocks for churches and colleges, 28 chime machines, 11 turret clocks for gentlemen’s houses but also lists 83 frames for stocking weavers.
The clock movement is of "birdcage" frame design, made from flat wrought iron bars, which are mortised at the corners and held together by threaded fixings. The frame is nicely finished with cranked knob finials on the four corners. It has two trains, the going train for the time keeping and a striking train with external count wheel which strikes the hours on the tenor bell. Each train has three arbors which are held in position by four flat wrought iron bars bolted to the main frame. All the wheels, arbors, solid and lantern pinions are also made from wrought iron apart from the escape wheel, which is made from cast brass. The time keeping is controlled by a recoil escapement which impulses a wrought iron pendulum rod which has a beat of approximately 1 second.
The clock movement is housed in a wooden case made of elm sitting on an oak trestle by the west wall of the first floor of the tower. Originally it drove one dial which was fixed in front of the louvres of the bell chamber at the top of the tower on the west wall. The dial was lozenge-shaped and approximately 5 feet from side to side, and would without doubt have been constructed from wood and had only one hand to indicate the hours and quarters. The dial became so badly deteriorated that it was removed and burnt in 1964. However the clock kept going and striking the hours until the weight line on the going train broke in the late 1970’s.
The chime machine is situated in the middle of the second floor of the tower and is constructed from wood (oak and elm) and wrought iron and was powered by a large limestone weight. The chime machine activates twelve levers which in turn operate twelve hammers (two for each of the six bells) which plays the tune. The last to be played by the machine being "We love the place O God", but it has in the past played tunes such as "My lodging is the cold, cold snow" and "Oh dear what can the matter be" and other secular tunes.
The tune was played at 8am, 12 noon, 4pm, 8pm and 12 midnight. The chime machine was tripped from the clock after striking the hours. It played the tune twice, except only once at midnight and was silenced at 4am.
The chime machine last played in the 1930’s and was not reconnected to the bells when a new steel bell frame was installed in 1937.
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Inspection & proposed restoration of clock and chime machine.
When I first spoke to Mr Sutton on the telephone regarding the restoration of the clock and chime machine, I could not wait to get down to Buckland and see what was in the tower. The first part I saw was the clock movement, I had never seen or worked on one of Mr Steight’s clocks before and what impressed me was the quality for such an early clock. The frame was nicely finished with cranked knob finials, the wheels were well cut with fire-welded spokes, but most of all it was very pleasing to the eye.
The clock was in very poor condition, all the bushes were worn in both the striking and going trains, as were the lantern pinion trunnions and the going train second wheel teeth. The brass recoil escape wheel was in very good condition, but the pallets had become badly pitted from many years of service and would require attention. Some repair work would also be required on the locking and lifting levers of the striking train and somebody in the past had altered the operation of the "nags head" strike release arm, so this also had to be returned to the way it was originally made. The clock had been going as such until the weight line failed in 1976 and since then had lain silent. The clock hammer was lying under the clock with many of the weights, weight lines and pieces of broken pulley. The dial had been removed in the early 1960’s and the connecting rod from the clock mechanism to the dial was no longer in position and was lying to one side badly bent and twisted. Luckily the worm and wheel motion work was still there.
Most importantly the clock was complete, no parts were missing and because of the quality in its construction, I knew that once it had been restored, it would again give good, reliable service to the village of Buckland.
Clock movement before restoration.
After I had finished making my notes on the clock movement Mr Sutton led the way up an old wooden ladder to the next floor and lifted the trap door. Inside this room was the chime machine in all its glory, I had seen photographs of them and read about them, but I had never set eyes on one of this age. I had worked on several Victorian carillons, but this was a completely different ball game.
The main frame and tune barrel are made of oak and elm and all the wheels, arbors and fixings from wrought iron. The pins which lift the levers, which in turn raise the hammers that strike the bells, are fitted into slots between the slats of the tune barrel and held in place with wedges on the inside of the barrel, which meant that the pins could easily be moved and set for a different tune. The machine was powered by a large octagonal, cross-sectioned, flat-bottomed, teardrop shaped stone weight (about 35kilos) which was lying in the corner of the room.
The woodwork appeared to be in good condition, but all the ironwork was heavily rusted. The main wheel was very badly worn and the lantern pinion trunnions, similar to the ones on the clock movement, needed replacing. Again all the bearings needed re-sleeving. The hammers and bell cranks had been removed from the bells and placed in the clock room, and what was remaining of pull wires, which connect the machine to the hammers were bent, twisted and beyond reclamation.
Views of chime machine before restoration.
Even though it was in a very sorry state I knew that it could be made to work again and that it would be such a wonderful project to undertake, but first I had to come up with a cost for putting it right and this was not going to be easy.
I felt confident about the restoration of the clock movement, but felt I needed advice on the chime machine. Luckily my father who has advised me so many times with restoration projects I have been involved with, is very knowledgeable on the subject of woodwork, so I arranged with Mr Sutton to make a second site inspection with my father. After this inspection my father put all my worries concerning the woodwork to rest.
After several conversations with Mr Sutton it was decided that the clock and the chime machine would need to be fully restored, keeping to the guide lines set by the Council of the Care of Churches. We recommended that they should be automatically wound. A new dial would have to be made and instead of fixing it back in its original position, it was to be fitted on the north wall of the tower and at a lower position. This would better suit the changes to the village, which had taken place over the last 300 years.
Mr Sutton had made a scaled image of a dial and attached this to a photograph of the north wall of the tower, which looked absolutely perfect and it was decided that we should make it to his design and in period with the clock installation.
And so I headed off home to work out my quotations, which took a considerable amount of time and caused many headaches.
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The removal of clock & chime machine from the tower.
It was with great joy that I received the news that our bid had been successful and had been awarded the contract for the restoration. A lot of praise should be given to Mr Sutton, who managed to raise the money needed for the job to go ahead. I am very grateful to him that he did, because I don’t think that I have learnt so much in the course of one job before.
In September 1996 David McVicar and myself of the Cumbria Clock Company with my father Derrick Youngs arrived at St. Michael’s and started the removal of the clock and chime machine, I had no worries about removing the clock, but the chime machine I was very concerned about. This was mainly due to the fact that a lot of the fixings holding the chime machine together had become very corroded, and from previous experience of removing such fixings from wood, is that the wood gives up before the fixing starts to move. But to my surprise they all came out without any trouble what-so-ever. Our main concern was whether or not the wooden barrel would pass down through the hatches in the floors of the tower, because we have found in the past that apertures in the floors and through doorways have been changed after the clocks etc. have been installed. Luckily this was not the case and everything was removed to the bottom of the tower.
The main wooden frame of the chime machine had to stay in place, but we soon had everything in the back of our van for the journey back to Cumbria.
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The restoration of the clock movement.
Once the movement was back in our workshops work began. The first stage was to strip each part down completely and clean it with a heavy duty degreaser to remove all the old oil and dirt that had accumulated over the years. This took considerable scrubbing and wire brushing, but soon we had all the components set out in front of us and could begin to see exactly what we had let ourselves in for.
All the bearings needed re-bushing, several pivots needed the wear correcting and then polishing and all of the lantern pinion trunnions needed replacing. The solid pinions had to be built up and re-profiled. The escapement pallet impulse faces also needed building-up and re-profiling to the correct shape and then case hardening. There were a few minor repairs and adjustments to be made to the locking levers.
We started with the frame, which was made up from lengths of rectangular wrought iron, mortised and tenoned into four square sectioned uprights, with the end of the tenon reduced and threaded, so that a nut could be tightened, holding the whole frame together.
After cleaning, the frame was re-assembled and the joints greased so that if anybody in the future had to dismantle the frame again it would come apart easily. The frame had been so well made that after we had tightened all the fixings the frame sat perfectly square on its four feet and didn’t require any adjustments. In most cases with clocks from this period, the frame has to be persuaded to sit square and this can cause many problems with lining up the pivot holes so that the arbors can run freely.
With the frame together, the bars which hold the wheels of each train in position were fitted. We were then able to set up line boring, re-bushing equipment to bore out the original bushes for re-sleeving with gunmetal. The sleeves could be pressed into the bushes for the pivots of the arbors to run in so that the wheels and pinions would engage at the correct depth.
After boring out the bushes the outside diameter of the sleeves could be turned to fit but before we could establish the internal bore of the sleeves it was necessary to restore the wear from the pivots of the arbors. Again all the pivots were very badly worn and each arbor had to be set between centres in the lathe and skimmed. Each pivot then had to be burnished to give a good working surface.
Now the pivots had been completed the sleeves could be finished and pressed into the original bushes in the clock frame. Next was to mount the arbors in the frame to make sure that they revolved freely, which thankfully they did.
The next stage was to replace the trunnions in the lantern pinions of the strike and going trains. The lantern pinions were removed from the arbors and then the riveted ends of each trunnion were drilled out, so that the cheeks came apart. New trunnions were made and case hardened and the part of the trunnion which was to be riveted was ground appropriately. The trunnions were then polished and the cheeks riveted back together and mounted onto the arbor.
The second wheel in the going train needed turning around on its arbor so that it would work on the unworn side of its teeth. With this work completed all of the arbors and wheels were assembled in the frame, and rotated and the depthing of wheel and pinion checked again.
The escape wheel was in very good condition. Over the years the pallets had become very badly worn due to the action of the escapement and needed building-up and re-profiling, polished, case hardened and then re-polished. This work takes quite some time but if done well makes the escapement work very efficiently, thereby improving its accuracy.
After all the repair work had been completed all that remained was to polish and lacquer the brass work and paint all the ironwork.
All the brass work was lacquered pale gold and the ironwork was finished in an eggshell black.
After the paint had completely hardened, the clock movement was put on test in the workshop. We placed pulleys hanging from the workshop roof trusses, put weight lines on the barrels and wound up the clock. With great excitement I impulsed the pendulum and away it went. The clock performed excellently and as it slowly ran itself in, the arc of the pendulum increased and its time keeping improved.
Restored clock movement.
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The dial.
Mr Sutton had made a scale montage of the proposed dial and from this we obtained the dimensions for the size of the dial. It was also decided that the appearance of the dial should be in keeping with the age of the clock movement, so my wife Lynn used her experience in dial restoration and came up with three designs for the layout of the numerals and the shape of the hand. These were sent to Mr. Sutton and the P.C.C. decided which one it preferred.
The dial (lozenge-shaped – 3ft 6 inches sides) was made by Dalton Joinery of Dacre from drawings made by ourselves. The backboard was made in marine plywood and the mouldings from air-dried English oak. A copper plate of 16 gauge was screwed onto the front of the marine plywood using brass screws. The copper was primed using a twin pack etching primer and three coats of self-undercoating eggshell topcoat. The finished colour being a mid-blue. Lynn marked out the numerals, digits, rings and gilded them using 23 ¾ double thickness English gold leaf. The hand, which was also made from copper, was primed and painted and finished in gold leaf.
Everybody was pleased with the end result.
New clock dial.
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Installing the clock movement and dial.
With the clock movement ticking away happily in the workshop and the dial completed, the time had come to return these to the church and install them. Because the dial was to be fitted in a new position it meant a hole had to be drilled through the wall for the hour rod to run in. We decided on a 60mm diameter hole for a 50mm sleeve and hired a diamond drilling rig with 3 ½ ft extension bars to execute the job.
After deciding the best position for the clock face on the tower wall, a jig was made to hold the drill equipment square to the wall and bolted into position on the inside face of the tower wall. It took a few hours to drill the hole, but eventually we broke through to the out side and in the correct position.
The dial was then winched up and held in position using stainless steel fixings. This work was undertaken using rope access equipment, which meant that expensive scaffolding wasn’t needed.
The clock movement was lifted into position onto its stand and the automatic winding units installed below the clock so that the wooden bearers concealed them.
The original worm and wheel dial motion work were restored and fitted vertically from the clock movement, driving diagonally across the tower to another set of bevels connected to the clock hand spindle which drove out through the wall to the hand.
A temporary bell hammer was fitted to the tenor bell so that the hours could be struck until the chime machine was completed.
For the first time in 60 years the clock had a face telling the time to the people of Buckland.
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Restoration of Chiming Machine.
The first thing to do with the chiming barrel, once in the workshop, was to plot the position of each peg so that they could be put back into their correct place after restoration of the chime machine. The next stage was to remove all the iron fixings from the woodwork, this turned out to be a lot easier than anticipated. All the iron parts were then treated with a rust inhibitor before any repair work was started. The lantern, solid pinions and bearings needed a similar treatment as those on the clock movement. The main shaft carrying the barrel upon which the heavy stone weight was wound was also badly worn. This was built up and turned on the lathe back to its original diameter.
All the woodwork was treated with an insecticidal and fungicidal fluid and then sealed and polished with a good wax polish. This put life back into the wood and some parts looked the equal of top class antique furniture.
The main repair work on the barrel was where the locking finger was secured and the two circumferential wood strips at the ends of the slats into which the striking pegs were fixed. All this work was again undertaken by Dalton Joinery.
Chime machine locking finger after restoration.
The wrought iron main wheel teeth had become very badly worn and it was decided that instead of turning the wheel around that the teeth should be built-up with weld and re-profiled. This was a very time consuming job, but the end results were very satisfying. The wheel was then mounted onto the main shaft in its original position. A chain sprocket was then fitted to the shaft and great care was taken to insure that it ran true, otherwise the chain from the automatic winding unit could run off, which would have disastrous consequences.
Each peg was cleaned and the working face polished, so that they would lift the hammer levers efficiently. They were then put back into their original position and their holding wedges hammered up tight.
Because the main frame was still in the tower it was impossible for the machine to be tested, so every thing was loaded into the back of the van for the long journey back to Buckland.
Restored Barrel and main wheel of chime machine.
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Installation of chime machine.
Once all the components of the chime machine were re-installed in the room they had come from, we started assembling. All the bearings are held in position with wedges, and because of the amount of re-bushing that had needed doing, there was much concern as to whether all the arbors would revolve freely and we were expecting to have to line ream the new sleeves to overcome any tight spots. But it turned out that all was well and the wheels and pinions engaged and ran well together.
Our self manufactured, heavy-duty, epicyclic, automatic winding unit is secured to the floor underneath the machine. The weight line from the automatic winding unit was directed into the corner of the room and the original stone weight used as the power source.
The release mechanism needed a few minor adjustments before we could test the operation fully and it was with much delight when the chime machine went through its full cycle without any problems, albeit without sounding the bells.
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Installation of hammers and bell cranks.
Most of the hammers and bell cranks had been removed when the new bell frame was fitted and the only parts missing were two hammer heads and seven sets of bell cranks. All the hammers, bell cranks and check springs were cleaned and painted and the missing hammer heads and bell cranks reproduced in the workshop, the new brackets that hold the hammers to the bell frame where made onsite. New stainless steel "S" hooks and pull wires were fitted and connected to the chime machine via the bell cranks.
It was now ready to play its tune.
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Playing the tune for the first time.
It was with great excitement that we released the chimes for the first time with all the hammers in place. As the barrel started to turn we were all expecting to hear the opening bars of "We love this place O God" but instead our ears were greeted with the "Westminster" chimes. As we began to wonder what was happening the "Westminster" chimes finished and the tune started to play, as the barrel rotated it became clear to our ears that not all the pegs were in their correct position, but the tune was unmistakably "We love the place O God". The pegs were re-positioned and within a few hours the tune was being played correctly for the first time in sixty years.
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Description of the how the chime machine is released by the clock movement.
The chime machine is released by the clock movement at 8am, 12 noon, 4pm, 8pm and 12 midnight. A lever on the back of the clock movement, which is lifted by pins on the side of the count wheel as the clock movement is striking the hours, operates through a series of pull wires and bell cranks lifts the weighted arm of the "kick start" release mechanism on the chime machine. At the last blow of the hour strike the lever falls off the pin on the count wheel, which allows the weighted arm to drop onto the release arm of the chime machine count wheel, which in turn unlocks the barrel and allows it to start revolving. After each revolution the locking finger indexes the chime machine count wheel forward. On the second revolution the locking finger starts to index the count wheel forward until the release arm locks onto one of the locking faces on the side of the count wheel.
At 12 midnight the barrel revolves only once.
Release mechanism
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Automatic winding units.
Automatic winding unit.
The automatic winding units installed on the going and striking trains of the clock movement was our standard epicyclic units manufactured in our workshops. The automatic winding unit installed to the chime machine, is one of our heavy duty units, which are designed to lift weights in excess of 1 cwt and are ideal for such applications.
The winding units are designed to remove the chore of manual winding and are very compact and powerful. Power is provided to the clock and chime machine by a transmission chain through a weight driven, three planet, totally enclosed, oil immersed epicyclic gear box, driven by a totally enclosed, fan cooled 230-240v capacitor start, induction motor.
In the event of a mains failure, the clock will continue to run for many hours, due to the fact that the chain wheels have been fitted to the main barrel arbors and also, because all the weights have been directed into the chime machine room we were able to give them maximum drop.
The chain wheels were fitted to the arbors with tipped grub screws, with no alteration to the clock or chime machine whatsoever, thus leaving them in their original condition.
Weight boxes are placed under each weight, so that if one of the weight lines should break the weight ,will fall into one of the boxes which are filled with polystyrene chips with laminations of plywood to absorb the fall. The tops of each box was covered with a thin layer of plywood, which the weights would easily break through.
We were able to use the original limestone weight for the power source to the chime machine, but the going and striking train weights were replaced with cast iron weights manufactured in the 19th century. We were unable to use the original weights because of complications involving the sprocket sizes on the automatic winding systems, so we decided to hang these weights on hemp rope from the clock frame, inside the clock room, giving the impression that they were still in use.
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Night silencing & barring-off the clock hammers.
Because the chime machine was originally made to play at midnight, it was decided that a night silencing system would have to be fitted, and also there would have to be some method of "barring-off" the hammers when the bells were being rung, to avoid any damage to either the bells or the hammers. Originally the chime machine was fitted with a manually operated method of pulling the hammers away from the bells. This consisted of a long wooden arm which operated on the hammer lifting arms on the chime machine itself. It was therefore decided that we should fit a linear actuator to the end of this arm, which could be controlled by a time switch for night silencing and also have a switch fitted so that the bell-ringers could operate the actuator to "bar-off" before ringing. Lights were incorporated into the control panel, RED meaning that hammers were in the striking position , and GREEN indicating that it was safe to ring the bells. As an extra safety feature, it was decided to have a visual indicator of the operation of the actuator, This consisted of a line fitted to the ram arm of the actuator with a weight hanging from it at the bottom of the tower. Two lines were painted onto the wall indicating whether the actuator was in the UP or DOWN position.
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Testing of the clock timing.
8th January 1997. 11am 0 time.
Noon +2secs fast.
1pm +3secs.
2pm +2secs.
3pm +7secs.
4pm +7secs.
6pm +2secs.
8pm +1secs.
9th January 1997. 8am 0
9am -3secs slow.
10am +1secs.
Noon -1secs.
7pm -3secs.
8pm +2secs.
10th January 1997. 8am -3secs.
10am +3secs.
Noon 0
2pm 0
4pm 0
6pm +2secs.
7pm +1sec.
8pm +1sec.
11th January 1997. 8am +5secs.
9am +3secs.
10am +2secs.
11am -1sec.
Noon 0
4pm +3secs.
7pm +1sec.
12th January 1997. 9am +2secs.
10am +4secs.
11am +7secs.
Noon +5secs.
2pm +7secs.
4pm +4secs.
5pm +9secs.
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Persons / Organisations involved with the Project.
Clock and Chime Machine.
Sir George White. Clocks Advisor to the Diocese of Gloucester.
Mr. V. J. R. Sutton. Secretary to the P. C. C. St. Michael’s Church, Buckland. Responsible for raising funds for the Project and for technical supervision of theProject on behalf of the P. C. C.
Mr. John Griffiths. Monitor for the work on behalf of the English Heritage Lottery Fund. Mr. Griffiths gave valuable technical advice and support during the early conceptual stages of how the restoration work should be carried out.
Mr. Keith Scobie-Youngs. Partner of The Cumbria Clock Company. Chief conservator for the project.
Mrs. Lynn Scobie–Youngs. Partner of The Cumbria Clock Company. Conservator, designer and painter of the dial.
Mr. Derrick Youngs. Conservator and technical advisor.
Mr. David McVicar. Cumbria Clock Company Conservator.
Dalton Joinery. Dacre, Cumbria. Maker of clock dial and for the high quality joinery work for the restoration of the chime machine.
General Work.
R. H. Dare & Son. Aston Cross, Tewkesbury. Contractor for electrical installation. Power circuits and spotlights.