The Jubilee Clock Tower,

striking clock A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell, gong, or other audible device. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up t ...

, and

drinking fountain A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and s ...

, is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building in the village of Churchill,

North Somerset North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The council is based in Weston-super-Mare, the area's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Clevedon, Nailsea ...

, built to commemorate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

in 1897. It stands on a plot between Dinghurst Road and Front Street, and is a prominent landmark at the entrance to the village. Designed by Joseph Foster Wood of Foster & Wood,

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, the tower is made of local stone and is of perpendicular

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

. The tower has a cast iron clock face on each of its four sides with one mechanism driving the clock hands. The

escapement An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to t ...

and

clockwork Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement (clockwork), movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or wei ...

was supplied by J. B. Joyce & Co in 1898 and is wound weekly by volunteers. The clock strikes the hours and chimes the Westminster Quarters. Responsibility for maintenance of the tower transferred to the parish council after the original

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust (law), a legal relationship in which one person holds property for another's benefit * Trust (bu ...

could no longer afford to maintain it. The whole structure, tower, walls, and railings, was designated as a Grade II listed building on 19January 1987, nearly ninety years after the tower was built.

History

Inception

In 1897, Sidney Hill, a local businessman and benefactor, purchased the old turnpike house near the Nelson Arms pub in Churchill,

, and a house and plot of land between Dinghurst Road and Front Street, near the entrance to Churchill village. Both sites were in a state of disrepair and were unsightly. Hill planned to clear the old buildings and debris, plant ornamental shrubs, and enclose the plots with iron railings; similar in design to the then plantation in front of the nearby

Methodist church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

and schoolroom that Hill had built in Front Street in 1881. Furthermore, his intention was to build a clock tower on the site to mark the

in 1897.

Design

Hill engaged Joseph Foster Wood of Foster & Wood,

, to design the tower. Wood was the son and nephew of the founders of Foster & Wood. They were a busy architectural practice in

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Bristol and many landmark buildings in the city were designed by them, including Fosters Almshouse (1861),

Colston Hall Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, it has been managed by Bristol Music Trust. The hall opened as a con ...

(1864), Grand Hotel, Broad Street (1864 to 1869),

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, mixed, Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowe ...

(1875), and a large number of

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

chapels. Hill had used the same practice to design the Methodist church and schoolroom at Churchill.

Build

The tower was built by the end of 1897, and in the following year, J. B. Joyce & Co installed the bell and clock mechanism. On 31July 1901, Hill gifted the tower, and the adjacent schoolroom, to the Churchill Memorial Chapel and School Trust. Graham Clifford Awdry, Joseph Foster Wood's former business partner, wrote in Wood's obituary, "A charming memorial tower at Churchill, Somerset, is a good specimen of his originality." Julian Orbach, an architectural historian with an interest in Victorian buildings, has also described the tower as " pretty Arts and Crafts Gothic clock tower."

Restoration

By March 1974, the wall surrounding the tower was crumbling, and the tower stonework required

pointing Pointing is a gesture specifying a direction from a person's body, usually indicating a location, person, event, thing or idea. It typically is formed by extending the arm, hand, and index finger, although it may be functionally similar to othe ...

and cleaning. The clock's winding mechanism was also in a poor state of repair and it would have cost a thousand pounds to mechanise it. The trust responsible for the upkeep of the tower had an annual income of five hundred pounds and was paid twelve pounds (equivalent to pounds in 2020) per year by the parish council to maintain the tower. The trust had asked for more help from the parish council as it was not possible to maintain the tower and the other church properties for which they were responsible. It was recognised that the longterm future of the tower lay either with listing the tower as an

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

or that the parish council take over the maintenance of the tower. By September 1976, the trust had applied to the Charity Commissioner to have its responsibilities transferred to the parish council. In the same month, John Edgar Howard Smith, the managing director of

Smith of Derby Group Smith of Derby Group is a clockmakers, clockmaker based in Derby, England founded in 1856. Smith of Derby has been operated continuously under five generations of the Smith family. History John Smith (21 December 1813 - 1886)holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

of J. B. Joyce & Co, wrote to the parish council offering to carry out a free survey of the clock, although at the time of Smith's letter, the trust had recently refurbished and renovated the mechanism at a cost of two hundred pounds. In 1977, for the Queen's Silver Jubilee, the tower was cleaned by Arthur Raymond "Ray" Millard, a former

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of Churchill parish council, and a team of volunteers. In 1979, their work on restoring the tower was commemorated through a plaque affixed to the west side of the tower. In the 1980s, Millard was interviewed about his life and work as site manager for the construction of

Bristol City Hall City Hall (formerly the Council House) was built as the seat of government of the city of Bristol, in the south west of England, opening in 1956. Designed in the 1930s, with construction delayed by the Second World War, it is in a restrained ...

. A

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

recording and transcript of this interview is held in the archives of

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture and Creative Industries it is run by the Bristol City Council with no ...

Maintenance

On 25October 1978, the parish council established a charitable trust to maintain the clock and tower as a public

amenity In property and land use planning, amenity (lat. ''amoenitās'' “pleasantness, delightfulness”) is something considered to benefit a location, contribute to its enjoyment, and thereby increase its value. Tangible amenities can include th ...

. The Open Spaces and Allotments committee of the council is now responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the tower. In 1980, contractors were engaged by the council to treat the tower with a chemical to discourage pigeons from

roosting Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

and soiling the ornamental stonework. On 19January 1987, the tower was designated as a

building, and in the same year, overgrown

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

was removed from the wall and iron railings surrounding the tower. In 2017, the clock was repaired and serviced, and the tower wall enclosure on Front Street rebuilt. The tower was opened to the public in the weeks leading up to the Platinum Jubilee Central Weekend at the beginning of June 2022.

Features and architecture

The tower has a cast iron clock face on each of its four sides, with

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

indicating twelve hours on each face. The clocks are attached to a square tower that has

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

to the first floor. One mechanism drives the faces on all sides of the tower. The second floor holds the bell and a

that is wound weekly by volunteers. A drinking fountain, with a cast iron tap and

water pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of applications such ...

fittings, is built into a niche on the east side of the tower. A bench has been installed outside the Reading Room in the tower enclosure and a new pathway constructed to provide disabled access. The inscription on the

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

above the clock faces, and below the bell floor, reads as follows:

Footnotes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jubilee Clock Tower, Churchill 1898 establishments in England 19th-century architecture in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in North Somerset Clock towers in the United Kingdom Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria Gothic Revival architecture in Somerset Grade II listed buildings in North Somerset Grade II listed monuments and memorials Individual clocks in England Monuments and memorials in Somerset Monuments and memorials to Queen Victoria Towers completed in 1898 Towers in Somerset