The History of the Clock and Bells

The Parish Church of St James St. James's Road, Hampton Hill, TW12 1DQ (Parish Office 020 8941 6003)

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One of the clock faces

In December 1893 Messrs. J. Smith & Sons of Derby supplied and fixed a clock with four dials in the tower, and also four ordinary bells for chiming. Read the articles Clock and Bells. The first inscription reads "J Smith & Sopns, Midland Steam Clock Works Derby" and the second reads "Reconsrtucted by John Smith & Sons, Midland Clock Works, Derby Ltd, CLOCLMAKERS, Derby 1974."

Another two bells were added in 1902 and this completed a peal of six with the inscriptions of ‘CORONATION OF KING EDWARD VII JUNE 26TH 1902 FEAR GOD HONOUR THE KING’ and ‘JUNE 26TH 1902 HONOUR ALL MEN, LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD’. It was planned that they would not be heard until the eve of the Coronation of King Edward VII unless the South African War should end before that date. However, the sudden grave illness of the King caused the coronation to be delayed until August.

In 1921 a Mr. Jakeman invented and erected, at his own cost, an apparatus by which the bell on week-days could be rung from the baptistry, instead of from the belfry. The church clock was repaired in 1924 and “may once more be relied upon for catching the business trains. Some have already expressed their pleasure in hearing their old friend chiming forth the hours. I hope that many who have missed the clock's timely aid will send me donations to help pay for its cleaning and repairing.” Again in 1934, “the clock has not been behaving itself in its usual correct manner just lately. This is because the wire of the striker has broken”. The clock was consequently cleaned and mended.

The bells

The hands from the north dial of the clock were stolen in 1974 but later returned, left on the church door-step in a brown paper parcel one night, but were too damaged to be of any use. The wrenching away of the hands badly damaged the intricate drive-mechanism of the entire clock and, while the scaffolding was up to repair the damage, the clock was repainted and regilded, and the winding mechanism was converted from manual operation to electric automatic power-drive.

The church clock and chimes were out of action for a few months in 2008 with a problem with the rewinding mechanism that required a special part to be made to replace it. The clock had given almost uninterrupted service since it was first set in motion in 1893 and had not been stopped for nearly 40 years since the dry rot problem in 1970.

Historical Background to Bell Making
A bell was made of bell metal, an alloy of copper and tin with the ratio of copper to tin being approximately 4:1. The pitch of a bell depended on its size and thickness but the tone was dependent on the type of metal used. The cast for the inside of the bell was made by putting loam sand on a framework of brick and wood, shaped by using a bell-board. This spun around a central vertical post to smooth and shape the sand. To make the outside of the bell more loam sand was pressed into the iron moulding case. This was then shaped as before. Decoration or wording that was required on the outside of the bell was pressed into the sand. The two casts were then bolted together firmly (bellmouth downwards) with the space in between having the same dimensions as the required bell. Molten bell metal was poured into the gap and when cool the casts were broken. Fine-tuning was done by working the inside of the bell to remove small amounts of material. The bell was then taken to the church to be hung.

Further Information
	Associated pages on this website: The Bell Tower

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