Time stands still as clock awaits repair

Councillor Steve Bashforth inside the Royton Town Hall clock tower

TIME is standing still in Royton as the hands on the town hall’s historic clock haven’t moved for seven weeks.

Residents have been left confused about why the Rochdale Road timepiece, which was built in 1881, has remained stuck at quarter past ten, while local councillors have been busy behind the scenes trying to get things ticking again.

After looking into the cause of the problem, officials were stunned to find that while the clock’s original mechanism is still fully functioning, the breakdown was caused by the failure of a modern sensor.

Royton councillor Steven Bashforth said: “We’ve had quite a few calls and comments by residents asking about what had happened to the clock.

“The original internal mechanism, which hasn’t been replaced since it was built, is still functioning perfectly.

“The problem is a fault with the modern equipment. Without it being able to sense the movement of the clock’s pendulum, the whole thing stops turning and the clock stops.”

He added that delivery of a replacement sensor is taking longer than expected.

Built by clockmakers Gillett and Bland, the clock kept local residents on time for over a century.

The installation, which uses the same type of mechanism that runs the Westminster clock at the House of Parliament, consists of four clock faces on each side of the tower— three 7ft diameter faces and a smaller one of 4ft 6in.

Rumours have long circulated that the smaller face, which looks out towards Shaw, was designed that way to stop Shaw residents being able to see the clock, a rumour Councillor Bashforth dismissed.

He said: “The roof of the building on that side of the tower is much higher, which meant the face of the clock couldn’t be as big.

“It had nothing to do with Shaw but the rumours have always been there!”

The clock has been meticulously maintained and it functioned well until 2012 when the clock’s weight mechanism failed, sending the substantial weights crashing in to the building’s cellar.

Councillor Steven Bashforth said: “The mechanism had worked fantastically well for all those years until the weight mechanism snapped one day.

“The weights fell all the way through to the cellar, and the damage to the floor is still visible now.”

The Cumbria Clock Company was then brought in to create a new winding mechanism, at a cost of £4,500, to ensure time moved on in the town.