00:00So we're here at St. Michael's Church in Brierley Hill and Tony you're a local businessman very
00:06passionate about this church aren't you? We are yes. Why is that then? Is it kind of like your
00:11family church? It's our family church most of our relatives are buried here some are just
00:16here beside of us there yeah and also my great-great-grandfather was involved with John
00:21Corbett who was buried here as well and John Corbett and his wife are buried just down the
00:25path here. Yeah and John Corbett was the man responsible for the the clock there on the
00:31church? He put them there in the first place yeah and he came from the Chateau Whitney one day here
00:35and decided he would put a lot of money into the church yeah front and back and clocks and this is
00:44the first time these clocks have been maintained in probably 130, 140 years. That's mad. So what's
00:50that to there's a fair bit of work you went up on there looking for a leak on the roof and you
00:55found a world of problems when you caught eye of the clock and saw that it was that in many pieces.
01:00When I looked at the clock it was being held together by a couple of rivets and it was also
01:04broken in four pieces yeah and it was in danger of dropping off that was the first problem with
01:09health and safety of anybody underneath yeah I reported it straight away to Maggie over there
01:14Maggie immediately got on to the clock from Smith's and we had a meeting on site at the same
01:21time and got a price in to replace the clocks both of them front and back and the scaffolding
01:27and all the rest that had to be done. I didn't have a lot to do with this Smith's have done most
01:31of this themselves and through the church yeah I didn't pay for any of this and it was all to do
01:36with Maggie and the church funds which has got to show how important it is to keep the church
01:41maintained and properly looked after and as you can see now throughout the church there's no leaks
01:46on the roof there's nothing we've maintained it we've done all we can do to keep it in top nick.
01:50Yeah well that's it over the years what do you reckon you've spent on the church yourself as a
01:55family three four hundred thousand yeah and a lot of man hours as well in it. We actually repointed
02:01the whole church up thirty years ago yeah with scaffolding and all the rest that went on with
02:06it and that was about 30 years ago we've only got weeks and weeks just repointing the whole church.
02:11And we've got a couple of the lads who've been over the years been doing the work on it you got
02:15your lad here yeah just introduce us who we got with your tone. Stephen has been up on that roof
02:20many many times yeah I've actually said about Stephen he spent more time up on top of the
02:24church roof than inside the church. So what does it mean to see it kind of you know shining there
02:31in the sunlight now that clock? It means a lot to us mainly it's another step forward to say that
02:35the church ain't ever gonna close yeah and it means maintenance has been carried out yeah as you
02:41said yourself there are many clocks all around the district that are just doing nothing because they
02:45can't afford to maintain them yeah in our church it's now we've now got brand new clocks which
02:49should be okay for another 60 70 years I should think. Fantastic. How you doing chap what's your name?
02:55My name's Joe. And what's the company it's Joe? Smith of Derby. Smith of Derby and specialist in clock
03:01restoration. Anything to do with clocks really. Clock making, we make new clocks, fix old clocks, dial restorations like we've done here.
03:08Anything to do with clocks we do. So what did you see the clock had to come down didn't it you know it was a
03:16proper it's but you won't fill us in on what you've had to do as a job on this one. So this
03:20thing here was actually the worst of the two it was it came down in about eight pieces yeah this
03:28one. So it was ready to drop wasn't it really. Number one on it had already dropped off yeah
03:33was long gone but our lads in the workshop have done a fantastic job of piecing it all back
03:41together it was close to being potentially a new face on this side but we managed to salvage it
03:47and then it then it went for blasting spraying and then our finishing shop have regilded it
03:55and we've put it back up this week. So there's a lot of welding a lot of structural work like that
04:01and you've also changed the inside the mechanisms a bit. Yeah the actual clock mechanism so you've
04:07got the old mechanical clock still there which the strike and quarter run off but the clock was
04:14electrified i think the old moon was 1965 i want to say so that's been replaced for a brand new one
04:22there's also a auto restart unit on it which does time change over. So previously it was a
04:30someone had to climb up a lengthy ladder to mess about to change. Yeah it was an old spin to start
04:35motor so you'd have to stop it and then change the time but none of that none of that needs doing
04:40anymore. Yeah fantastic and do you work all over the country doing your your job then? All over
04:45the country all over the world. Yeah you've done much in the black country before? Yes yeah loads.
04:50Yeah yeah cool must be a pleasure to kind of know that you you know you're entwining yourself in
04:56the own its own little bit of history into the church you know what i mean? It's always it's
05:00always nice going to places like that i mean churches are you know the main places we go
05:05yeah um but yeah we get to see some see some places that's for sure. So Tony we were just um
05:13reminiscing you know if uh if that clock could talk the things it's in you were saying about
05:17you know the poignant moments it would have chimed out over the years. It would have chimed
05:21out on the 11th day the 11th month when the first world war finished yeah that would have signaled
05:27to the people inside the church who were waiting to ring the bells that morning to signal the end
05:32of the world first world war yeah and not so many years after that it was decided to put the
05:36monument up over the road where there's the uh Armistice Sunday monument and that has rung out
05:42every year since then and i've been to several of those Armistice Sundays here since about 1950.
05:48And every year you hear this clock ringing and it's been very important to the whole community
05:52that that clock was kept at exactly the right time so we have a my son Stephen coming up here
05:58for several years now to make sure it's exactly the right time on Armistice Sunday at 11 o'clock
06:03when the parade is out here yeah on Armistice Sunday yeah but if we go back way back before
06:08that there was all the major battles the Boer war when that finished it would have signaled the Boer
06:13war and other wars which ain't talked about so much as the first world war yeah everyone would
06:18have been mentioned in the church if you look in the church there are several places in the church
06:22that are memorials to the people who took part in several of those campaigns which has been an
06:28incredible history and the clock has been part of it all the time yeah and this is why we've tried
06:33to keep it maintained and come up here turned it back two or three times twice a year when the
06:38clocks go back and every year you could hear this clock ringing out when we've stood out there on
06:43Armistice Sunday and it's played a vital part in the community here in Braille yeah
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