Visit to Terry’s Water Tower clock

On Friday morning 18^th July a group of 10 Rotarians enjoyed a visit to the Terry’s Water Tower clock.  The trip was led by John Cossins of the York Clock Group.

John took us up to the clock room which is in the place of the former water tank.  John has been largely responsible for ensuring the reinstatement of the clock.  After the closure of the factory and its sale in 2005 and the ultimate granting of planning permission in 2015 the restoration of the clock and creation of a small clock museum became a requirement of the planning approval.  The clock project was completed in 2022.  It was important that the clock was retained, when the factory closed it was one of only two similar clocks in existence.

Parts of the original clock had gone missing and many of the remaining components were in a poor state of repair.  John explained that whilst the clock has a pendulum it is a “Waiting Train” clock which is controlled by an electric pulse from a master clock.  John indicated the main components of the clock and explained how they work.  We also looked at another pendulum clock in the tower as well as display boards and clock memorabilia .

Graham Wilford told us about the water tower based on his research from archives stored in the Borthwick and we saw photographs of the tower under construction which were fascinating.  John explained that because of the Water tank access to the four dials and mechanism for maintenance is very restricted.  John also explained why factors such as the wind can effect the time keeping of the clock.

There were a lot of questions which John answered and the answers to many of those questions were fascinating.

York Clock Group wind 11 clocks in York on a weekly basis as well as helping with routine maintenance of the Terry’s water tower clock.  As a city we must be very grateful to John and the York Clock Group for the work that they enthusiastically do in maintaining clocks in the city.

After the visit John joined the Rotary lunch and he brought with him the restored Minster Gates clock drum and we were all delighted to see the work carried out by John and also by Sam Simpson who restored the metalwork.  We look forward to the clock going back in place in late August and it will also be lovely to see the clock well illuminated now at night time. York Rotary are very grateful to Sam and John for their work on the clock.

David Fotheringham