The Town Hall clock

The tower and the clock on the Town Hall were financed by Mrs Eleanor Frances Pochin shortly before she died on 16th July 1823 at the age of 76. She was the widow of George Pochin, who was Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for 37 years from 1761-98. 

The clock continued in use until 1882 when a new one was installed at cost of £85 [£4,500 at today's values]. The contract was awarded jointly to two local clock and watch makers, Thomas Pearce, of North Street, and Joseph Ellicock, of West Street, after they had submitted an acceptable estimate for a two-dial eight-day turret clock striking the hours and quarters. Work began in October and was completed by Christmas, the cost being met by donations and public subscriptions.

This clock remained in use until the end of the century when the parish council decided that the tower needed strengthening and that the clock should be illuminated at night. The work was carried out in 1899 by a local expert Mr Edward Pearce, a clock and watch maker with premises in North Street, and the son of Thomas Pearce who had helped supply the previous clock.

The timepiece had been in need of restoration for some time and Mr Pearce fitted a new dial with gilded hands and black figures in an opal glass, allowing the clock face to be illuminated after dark, a modern innovation at that time. The illumination was provided by gas light regulated by automatic machinery and the old wooden turret or cupola was lined with asbestos to render it fireproof. The clock mechanism was sited in the constable's room in the Town Hall below and connected to the dial by wires.

Total cost of the work was £47 14s. 1d. [£3,000 at today's values]. "The illuminated dial of the clock gives universal satisfaction", said the Stamford Mercury. "The new clock is a decided improvement for which the parish councillors may justly claim credit." 

The clock continued in use until it was badly damaged during the Town Hall fire of 1933 although during the Great War of 1914-18, the striking mechanism was silenced in case it might be confused with an air raid or an invasion alert. The minutes of Bourne Urban District Council do not say but merely recorded in April 1916: "In compliance with an order from the Home Office, it was decided that the striker of the Town Hall clock be tied up for the duration."

Ironically, it would appear that it was the gas lamp in the turret used to illuminate the clock that overheated and caused the fire of 1933. The tower was never replaced and the clock was later refurbished and reinstalled on the pediment below where it can be seen today. 

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2004

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