Castle Combe Clock

The Castle Combe clock is situated in St. Andrew's Church, Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England and was probably made in the late 15th century. It is faceless and strikes a bell in the church tower.

There are no known documents that show an exact date when the clock was manufactured, but it is of similar construction to the Exeter Cathedral Clock, the Marston Magna clock and the Cotehele clock. A comparison with those clocks makes it likely that it was constructed in the late 15th century.

Sometime after 1670, the clock was converted from verge escapement and foliot to a pendulum. For the conversion, the clock was turned upside-down and the release mechanism for the hour strike was adapted to the new positioning of the clock.

In 1984, the clock was taken down from the bell tower to the nave of the church, and put on a concrete plinth in a wooden cabinet with glass panes. The moving parts were painted bright orange, and a minute hand with a 180 degree dial was added. The manual winding spokes were removed and electric winders were installed for both going and striking train.

The going train sits on top of the clock and the striking train is below. This used to be the other way around, before the clock was converted to have a pendulum.

The two-post door frame is made from wrought iron. The top and bottom horizontal bars are fixed to the vertical bars by wedged tenon. The frame bars are approximately 1 centimetre (0.39 in) thick and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) wide.

An anchor escapement was fitted to the clock; the date of this conversion is unknown.

The escapement arbor turns anti-clockwise. The pendulum theoretically swings once every second, and the escapement wheel (brass) has 20 teeth, so the escapement arbor takes 40 seconds per turn.

On the second arbor, the gears consist of an 8-pin birdcage and a 64-teeth wheel, which thus takes 320 seconds per turn. This arbor is probably not original and might date from the conversion to pendulum. This arbor is held by two short brackets that centre approximately 3 centimetres (1.2 in) to the left of the main frame. The brackets are roughly riveted to the main frame.

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