The Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben) Automatic Winding

The Burden of Hand Winding

Before 1913, the Great Clock was wound entirely by hand. Each week, two men had to turn winding handles thousands of times to raise the massive weights powering the going, striking, and quarter trains. Edmund Beckett Denison himself once described this work as being “hardly fit for anybody except convicts.”

The strain of this task left its mark: deep footprints worn into the wooden floor of the clock room, a physical reminder of the human effort that kept the nation’s most famous clock running.

The Ingenious Winding Machine

In 1913, Dent & Co. installed an extraordinary electro-mechanical winding system. Ingenious and sophisticated, it transformed the job of winding from a four-hour ordeal into a forty-minute mechanical process. Using clutches, cams, and an ingenious epicyclic gear train, it could raise the weights automatically while maintaining power to the escapement — a pioneering achievement in turret clock engineering.

But over the decades, knowledge of its workings faded. By the 1970s, only part of the system was being used, and eventually it fell into disrepair.

Restoring a Forgotten Mechanism

As part of the Elizabeth Tower conservation project, the Cumbria Clock Company dismantled and studied the winding system in detail, piece by piece. Some parts had been missing for decades and had to be traced and reunited with the machine.

After months of research, assembly, and testing in our Cumbrian workshops, the system was finally brought back to life. Once again, the Great Clock could be wound as it was intended over a century ago — not by brute force alone, but by one of the most ingenious machines of its age.

Watch the Winding in Action

Below you can watch a full video of the winding system in operation, showing each stage of this remarkable process. It offers a rare glimpse into one of the least seen — yet most vital — parts of the Great Clock of Westminster.