St Michaels Church in Brierley Hill, now has a sparkling refurbished clock face.
We meet up with local businessman Tony Whittaker, who over the years has invested 100's of thousands of pounds in the church over the years so he is delighted to see the clock that was about to fall off the building, now back after a major overhaul. He hasn't funded this latest project but was there to see it being installed back on the church.
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00:00So we're here at St. Michael's Church in Brierley Hill and Tony you're a local businessman very
00:06passionate about this church aren't you? We are yes. Why is that then? Is it kind of like your
00:11family church? It's our family church most of our relatives are buried here some are just
00:16here beside of us there yeah and also my great-great-grandfather was involved with John
00:21Corbett who was buried here as well and John Corbett and his wife are buried just down the
00:25path here. Yeah and John Corbett was the man responsible for the the clock there on the
00:31church? He put them there in the first place yeah and he came from the Chateau Whitney one day here
00:35and decided he would put a lot of money into the church yeah front and back and clocks and this is
00:44the first time these clocks have been maintained in probably 130, 140 years. That's mad. So what's
00:50that to there's a fair bit of work you went up on there looking for a leak on the roof and you
00:55found a world of problems when you caught eye of the clock and saw that it was that in many pieces.
01:00When I looked at the clock it was being held together by a couple of rivets and it was also
01:04broken in four pieces yeah and it was in danger of dropping off that was the first problem with
01:09health and safety of anybody underneath yeah I reported it straight away to Maggie over there
01:14Maggie immediately got on to the clock from Smith's and we had a meeting on site at the same
01:21time and got a price in to replace the clocks both of them front and back and the scaffolding
01:27and all the rest that had to be done. I didn't have a lot to do with this Smith's have done most
01:31of this themselves and through the church yeah I didn't pay for any of this and it was all to do
01:36with Maggie and the church funds which has got to show how important it is to keep the church
01:41maintained and properly looked after and as you can see now throughout the church there's no leaks
01:46on the roof there's nothing we've maintained it we've done all we can do to keep it in top nick.
01:50Yeah well that's it over the years what do you reckon you've spent on the church yourself as a
01:55family three four hundred thousand yeah and a lot of man hours as well in it. We actually repointed
02:01the whole church up thirty years ago yeah with scaffolding and all the rest that went on with
02:06it and that was about 30 years ago we've only got weeks and weeks just repointing the whole church.
02:11And we've got a couple of the lads who've been over the years been doing the work on it you got
02:15your lad here yeah just introduce us who we got with your tone. Stephen has been up on that roof
02:20many many times yeah I've actually said about Stephen he spent more time up on top of the
02:24church roof than inside the church. So what does it mean to see it kind of you know shining there
02:31in the sunlight now that clock? It means a lot to us mainly it's another step forward to say that
02:35the church ain't ever gonna close yeah and it means maintenance has been carried out yeah as you
02:41said yourself there are many clocks all around the district that are just doing nothing because they
02:45can't afford to maintain them yeah in our church it's now we've now got brand new clocks which
02:49should be okay for another 60 70 years I should think. Fantastic. How you doing chap what's your name?
02:55My name's Joe. And what's the company it's Joe? Smith of Derby. Smith of Derby and specialist in clock
03:01restoration. Anything to do with clocks really. Clock making, we make new clocks, fix old clocks, dial restorations like we've done here.
03:08Anything to do with clocks we do. So what did you see the clock had to come down didn't it you know it was a
03:16proper it's but you won't fill us in on what you've had to do as a job on this one. So this
03:20thing here was actually the worst of the two it was it came down in about eight pieces yeah this
03:28one. So it was ready to drop wasn't it really. Number one on it had already dropped off yeah
03:33was long gone but our lads in the workshop have done a fantastic job of piecing it all back
03:41together it was close to being potentially a new face on this side but we managed to salvage it
03:47and then it then it went for blasting spraying and then our finishing shop have regilded it
03:55and we've put it back up this week. So there's a lot of welding a lot of structural work like that
04:01and you've also changed the inside the mechanisms a bit. Yeah the actual clock mechanism so you've
04:07got the old mechanical clock still there which the strike and quarter run off but the clock was
04:14electrified i think the old moon was 1965 i want to say so that's been replaced for a brand new one
04:22there's also a auto restart unit on it which does time change over. So previously it was a
04:30someone had to climb up a lengthy ladder to mess about to change. Yeah it was an old spin to start
04:35motor so you'd have to stop it and then change the time but none of that none of that needs doing
04:40anymore. Yeah fantastic and do you work all over the country doing your your job then? All over
04:45the country all over the world. Yeah you've done much in the black country before? Yes yeah loads.
04:50Yeah yeah cool must be a pleasure to kind of know that you you know you're entwining yourself in
04:56the own its own little bit of history into the church you know what i mean? It's always it's
05:00always nice going to places like that i mean churches are you know the main places we go
05:05yeah um but yeah we get to see some see some places that's for sure. So Tony we were just um
05:13reminiscing you know if uh if that clock could talk the things it's in you were saying about
05:17you know the poignant moments it would have chimed out over the years. It would have chimed
05:21out on the 11th day the 11th month when the first world war finished yeah that would have signaled
05:27to the people inside the church who were waiting to ring the bells that morning to signal the end
05:32of the world first world war yeah and not so many years after that it was decided to put the
05:36monument up over the road where there's the uh Armistice Sunday monument and that has rung out
05:42every year since then and i've been to several of those Armistice Sundays here since about 1950.
05:48And every year you hear this clock ringing and it's been very important to the whole community
05:52that that clock was kept at exactly the right time so we have a my son Stephen coming up here
05:58for several years now to make sure it's exactly the right time on Armistice Sunday at 11 o'clock
06:03when the parade is out here yeah on Armistice Sunday yeah but if we go back way back before
06:08that there was all the major battles the Boer war when that finished it would have signaled the Boer
06:13war and other wars which ain't talked about so much as the first world war yeah everyone would
06:18have been mentioned in the church if you look in the church there are several places in the church
06:22that are memorials to the people who took part in several of those campaigns which has been an
06:28incredible history and the clock has been part of it all the time yeah and this is why we've tried
06:33to keep it maintained and come up here turned it back two or three times twice a year when the
06:38clocks go back and every year you could hear this clock ringing out when we've stood out there on
06:43Armistice Sunday and it's played a vital part in the community here in Braille yeah