Town that’s going back in time
A TOWN centre clock appears to be keen on seeing in 2020 in all over again, after its hands mysteriously started running backwards.
Ashbourne’s Millennium Clock, which has stood in St John Street for more than 20 years was first noticed to be going backwards at the weekend.
The landmark’s owner, Ashbourne Town Council, was unaware of the sudden bid for localised time travel, and say they will contact their engineers to get the clock’s mechanism looked at as soon as possible.
Ashbourne’s mayor Sean Clayton initially reacted to news the clock was winding back the years with a sense of joy. “Oh please take us back to 2019”, he joked. “It was such a nice year.”
But then he swiftly added: “Oh, no, actually, we don’t want to repeat this year at all. Let’s not do all that again.”
The year 2020 has been devastating across the country, try, as the coronavirus pandemic took ook away our freedoms, led to mass unemployment and has affected the health and the lives of thousands of people.
And while Ashbourne’s infection rates have remained relatively low, the virus’s impact on the community has been severe, and has led to a disappointing series of cancellations of some of its favourite events.
While Shrovetide 2020 just t slipped li through the net as the early stages of the pandemic developed in the far east, Ashbourne Festival, Ashbourne Show, Ashbourne Beer and Cider Festival and Ashbourne Soapbox Race were among some of the big events that have been missed out on this year.
Mr Clayton, who organised the first soapbox race in 2019 that attracted
7,000 people, took the opportunity to enjoyed a tongue-in-cheek look at what we would like the Millennium Clock to take us back to, should its hands continue to keep turning backwards.
He said: “I think it’s fun to take this opportunity to look back, particularly at this most testing of times. What I’d like to go back to most of all, is an overall sense of community. Where everyone is lumped in together. I can remember unlocked doors, and going around your neighbour’s for tea when your mum wasn’t in after school.
“I do think there’s still a great sense of community among people who have been here for a long time, but in another way we seem to be becoming a commuter-belt town for people from out of Ashbourne.
“They’re living here, but going to their jobs out of town. I don’t think they’re shopping here much, either.
“They keep saying the world is getting smaller, but we seem to be travelling to everything.
“I’m hoping the coronavirus situation might start to bring people back to their high street and their community, to get involved with things, once we’re out of the lockdowns.”
Ashbourne resident Stuart Green, who alerted people to the Millennium Clock’s mysterious fault over the weekend, says he spotted the problem while waiting to buy groceries outside Fresh Choice, opposite the clock.
He said: “I first noticed that the clock was wrong. I was then surprised to see that it was actually going backwards.”
We asked Mr Green what he would go back to in Ashbourne. He said: “I’m generally someone who looks to the future, not the past, but it would be great to go back and visit the old Methodist Chapel that used to be in Compton, or to be there at the opening of the railway through Ashbourne, or at one of the first Shrovetide football matches.”