Gotham St Lawrence

Clock

The clock

Looking up the tower,
showing the clock face

In 1848 authorization was given to the church wardens to buy a new clock. The rates were increased to 10d in the pound to purchase it. At that time the parish of Gotham was in the Diocese of Lincoln. This clock was replaced in 1898 by the present one made by Bosworth, a Lincolnshire firm. It is, like most church clocks, a ‘mis-match’ called an armchair striker, that is, a flat bed clock with a cage clock design at the back with two four foot non-illuminated faces. Despite the size some boys managed to stop the clock in 1920 with their catapults.

The clock was wound once a week by hand until shortly after the second world war when the winding mechanism was operated electrically.