Why a Thurso church clock will run on German time
IT has been the duty of a lucky few to keep it ticking for the past 180 years.
But the clock at St Peter’s and St Andrew’s Church in Thurso, Caithness, will soon be ‘hands free’ as it finally joins the electronic age.
Councillors in the town are raising funds to replace its mechanism with a time signal transmission from Germany.
Known as DCF-77, the system has run since 1959 and is one of the oldest in the world. It operates from Mainflingen near Frankfurt.
The switch follows the retirement of the clock’s winder Bill Brown, 83, who will step down from his weekly duties when everything is up and running.
Mr Brown, who has been helping the clock hands turn for 13 years, said: ‘It is no bother to do it. I am back down in ten minutes a wee bit puffed, but I would be very grateful to give it up.’
He added: ‘At last I see the prospect of retiring from the job, as it is proposed to change the mechanical clock to electrical control.
‘This system will be the most modern available, will keep correct time, even automatically changing the hour in spring and autumn. The strike on the bell will be retained, so there will be no difference felt by the townspeople.’
Mr Brown, who once accidentally locked himself in the tower ten years ago, hopes the old clock mechanism will go on display.
The church, designed in the Scots Baronial style by William Burn, is a simplified version of Burn’s Church of St John the Evangelist, Edinburgh.
St Peter’s and St Andrew’s was opened in 1833, with the clock and gardens a gift from Liberal MP Sir Tollemache Sinclair. The clock started ticking in 1836 and was refurbished in 1986 by Dounreay apprentices.