Historic Council House clock and bells restoration to fix ‘chiming issues’

NottinghamWorld

The historic Little John bell at the top of Nottingham Council House has fallen silent for two months while the near 100-year-old clock is serviced to fix ‘chiming issues’. A senior Nottingham councillor says he also hopes the rest of the Council House, in Old Market Square, could be given a spruce-up in time for its centenary anniversary by the end of the decade. At 12pm on Tuesday (September 2) the bells in the building’s 200ft domed roof chimed for the last time ahead of a 10-week restoration project. Work on the clock and its gearbox will be the most time-consuming element of the project, but the Little John bell and its smaller siblings will be serviced too while out of action. While the bells were last silenced during the Second World War, it is estimated Little John could have chimed up to 3.8 million times since 1928. The clock itself has seen 51 million minutes pass by.

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00:00Music

00:21We've identified parts that are becoming worn and becoming unreliable

00:25and we've had chiming issues where they go out of synchronisation

00:29and when we realised that in 2028 the clock becomes 100 years old

00:34and the last time it was fully stripped down and serviced was in 1978 for its 50th

00:41we thought this is the opportunity to put things right

00:44and carry the clock forwards into the future

00:47and give it a future life for Nottingham another 50 if not 100 years

00:53So, Wayne's going to set up on Friday, I don't mean to meet him at the time of pandemic

00:57No, I mean when you deal with any ancient turret clock, the parts you have to make

01:01this clock was made of a period where they were starting to experiment with electric motors in clocks

01:07and Coke was one of the leading companies that went ahead and did that

01:10and so this clock, the chimes of the Stryker driven by an electric motor

01:14and that was unique to them

01:16and this system wasn't copied by other turret clock companies

01:20so we haven't got access to parts

01:23so we need to have these parts of the clock looked at, measured, identified

01:27and see where parts are more and where we need to make new ones

01:30because we can't buy spare parts

01:32You know, it must be expensive because it's really intricate work isn't it?

01:37It is, in comparison with some work you have done on projects

01:43we're in listed buildings, they run into millions

01:46so what we're spending here, the council spending with funding

01:49is actually quite small I think for what we're doing here

01:52which we're quite pleased to be able to quote within a window

01:56and get the job done for them

01:58Definitely

01:59It's an iconic bell, it's a unique bell for Nottingham

02:21but more importantly it's the sound of Nottingham

02:24it's what makes Nottingham the city

02:26when people come into the city they hear the bell

02:28they look up at the council house

02:30and that's why it's so important that we keep this kind of way up

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