Blessed be the cheesemaker who fixed church clock
‘Miracle’ of minster’s timepiece restarting after five years was really local’s impulse to recalibrate it
WHEN a churchwarden looked up and saw his minster’s centuries-old clock tick for the first time in five years, he thought it might be divine intervention.
The “miracle”, it turns out, was not God’s work but that of a local cheesemaker armed with a can of WD-40 and a grease gun, and the assistance of a schoolboy with a knack for engineering.
The clock on the Grimsby landmark had only been correct twice a day for the past few years, having become stuck at the time of 11.55.
Local councillors had called for it to be repaired, especially since the park outside the church, St James Square, had received £1.8 million worth of funding to revamp its tired facade. However, the cost of fixing its broken mechanism was estimated at £50,000, according to the church’s former director of music.
Hopes of fixing it were all but lost until, on Saturday, the minster’s churchwarden looked up to see the hands moving for the first time in years.
Christopher Daniel had been told nothing about any repair work and put the occurrence down to the hand of God. “I do not know why or how the clock has started working again,” he told Grimsby Live
“It is either divine intervention or there is a much more mundane reason that none of us are aware of.
“We just cannot explain it. Not only is the mechanism working again but the clock tells the correct time on all the faces.”
Little did Mr Daniel know that three days earlier, a pair of bell ringers had decided to have a go at fixing it themselves.
Ricky Harwood, 47, a cheesemaker, had been carrying out maintenance of the church’s 10 bells last week with the help of Jay Foley, 15, as part of their role as members of the Grimsby Ringers.
When they turned their attention to the clock and peered inside the wooden boxes containing the timepieces’s components, they discovered three dead pigeons “wrapped up” in the cogs.
After removing the birds, the pair set about recalibrating the chimes, and the hands, and lubricating the mechanism that powers the clock.
They used a grease gun which they happened to have to hand and a small can of WD-40 that Mr Harwood bought from the local shop.
While Mr Harwood undid the wing nuts, which release the hands from the mechanism and allow them to be worked independently, Jay, who plans to study engineering, ran up and down the 100 steps of the church tower calling out over the phone the time shown outside on the clock’s four faces.
After three hours of work, the pair then left the minster without telling a soul of the good deed they had done.
Mr Harwood, who was first taught how to repair a church clock as an 11-year-old bell ringer, told The Daily
‘We gave it some WD-40, a bit more tender loving care and a bit of coaxing’
Telegraph: “I like fixing things and I’m a curious person and Jay likes taking things apart. We thought we would have just a little look, it seemed a shame not to while we were there rooting around in the muck.
“We gave it some WD-40, a bit more tender loving care and a bit of coaxing.”
The father-of-three, who started a new career as a cheesemaker for the Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese company last month, added: “Whether you are religious or not, I think people listen to the bells, the clock, it’s a sign that the church is still there, isn’t it?
“A sign that someone is still there, someone still cares. I think it gives people hope.”
Jay, who plans to study engineering at the Humber Maritime College, said: “There is a message, I would say just go for where you want to go and if you see something that interests you, don’t stop – just continue with it.”