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BITS AND BOBS<br />
CLOCKS OF LEWES #16: THE TOWN CLOCK<br />
With its black and gold face,<br />
gabled roof and weathervane,<br />
the Town Clock looms out over<br />
the High Street on an ornate<br />
cast ironwork gantry from the<br />
Church House of St Michael<br />
in <strong>Lewes</strong>, as it has done for the<br />
past 137-odd years. In this time,<br />
the commercial focus of <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
might have shifted somewhat<br />
but the clock remains emblematic<br />
of the town.<br />
In the mid-19th century, a clock<br />
used to protrude from a building<br />
on the other side of St Michael’s,<br />
but this was demolished for the creation of a parish<br />
school. In 1881, Church House was built, with the<br />
new clock tower. Today, the narrow tower contains<br />
various elements of the clock’s history.<br />
The tower has five bells,<br />
which chime the hours. The<br />
bells were recast by Gillett<br />
and Co of Croydon, dated<br />
1887 – Queen Victoria's<br />
Golden Jubilee. An electric<br />
mechanism was added in<br />
1958, replacing the pendulums,<br />
which apparently hung<br />
in a deep pit under the tower.<br />
Brian Courage, Town<br />
Ranger, says the clock<br />
was restored again about<br />
eight years ago, when local<br />
residents requested the night<br />
chimes be silenced. Despite this partial muting, the<br />
clock still presides handsomely over the top of town.<br />
Daniel Etherington<br />
Thanks to Brian Courage and John Downie<br />
19
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