Clock Faces

The inception of the Friends of St Mary’s Church, Whittlesey was due to the then Rector, Rev. Philip Collins. At that time the congregation was quite small and based on members with fixed incomes. Unfortunately, the costs of a mediaeval church are not small, completely aside to the costs of running a parish church.

The mounts of two of the clock faces were deemed unsafe, to the point in fact that one had to be taken down before it came crashing down of its own accord. As a way of raising funds from a town that was very fond of St Mary’s, when it’s not possible to get them to the weekly services, Rev Collins called a meeting of townsfolk he felt may aid his plan. From this the Friends of St Mary’s, Whittlesey were inaugurated with the urgent task of raising around £70,000 as quickly as possible.

We set to work on how to deal with this mission. Regularly, a Herculean strength was asked of our Chairman, Gordon Ryall and Churchwarden, John Edwards, as the ‘removed’ clock face was carted to summer fetes and fundraisers on the Market Square. We had decided to sell ‘minutes’ from a 24 hour clock, at a £1 per minute. All the minutes are recorded in a book for posterity.

The actual ‘work’ of getting the mounts remade and the clock faces restored was the first time many of the committee members had come across the exciting world of Anglican faculties and pleasing ‘interested’ historical groups. Nothing ever seemed to happen quite as we thought it might. In fact, we had actually agreed that the freshly restored clock faces would be painted blue, for our patron saint, Mary with gold numerals. Those of you that have checked your watch by our tallest timepiece will have noticed her faces are definitely black. Discussions went on for some time as to whether we could replace the mounts with wood or something else. Quite a lot of money and a considerable amount of time was spent with a draughtsman producing plans that were never used. However,   it was all an important learning curve and it took just over four years for us to get the clock faces remounted in the pristine new colours with good safe mounts. It did actually give us several years of difficulties with the clock mechanism because everything was now so new, the nice rounded gears and sprockets became a little confused. But we all know what getting older can do to those all important joints!

As last Century came to a close, our then Rector, the Reverend Phil Collins, was asked by a local group of needlewomen, Whittlesey Patchwork, whether they could produce a record of Whittlesey life to hang in St Mary’s Church to mark the Millennium. He said “Yes, please” and we have proudly hung the result of their careful labours on the North wall of St Mary’s since the end of 1999.

Each of the squares that go to make up the wall hanging represents some aspect of Whittlesey. Those who have demonstrated their considerable skill are;
Ann Baker – Fisherman
Jane Wade – Fenland landscape
Janet Crick – Wype Doles Longsword Team
Margaret Dunmore – Lattersey Nature reserve
Eve Dexter – Water Tower
Val Chamberlain – War Memorial & Water Iris
Barbara English – Brickyard Chimney
Annie Denton – Wash Road
Andra Harrison – Buttercross; Ashline Lock & Dog in a Doublet Sluice.
Joy Slote – St Andrew’s Church
Beryl Jepson – St Mary’s Church
Molly Yardy – Washland Waterfowl
Ruby Hurst – Wype dole & Washlander Dancers
Linda Meacher – Sir Harry Smith
Shirley Pell – Morley’s Omnibus Company
Dolly Hall – Town Hall
Joyce Gotobed – Shaped panels of Wild Dogrose, ears of corn & lily
Mary Christian – Fenland Skater
Jill Fox – Local Agriculture & Birds of the Nene Washes
Doreen Coulson – Thatched Shop on the Market Square
Judith Foard – The Straw Bear

Joyce Gotobed, Jean Devenish and Ann Baker put it all together with ‘shattered glass’ design borders.

Clearly, this beautiful depiction of our community would soon deteriorate in the church’s climate of cold and damp, with the added worry of bats.
It was agreed to commission an archive box to house it for posterity.
Laura Wright had just finished a degree in Furniture & Product design at Leicester DeMontfort University, and was asked to take on this project. Numerous letters were sent to experienced carers of textiles such as English Heritage, National Trust, the Victoria & Albert Museum, looking for their advice. All of this was taken on board and incorporated in the design of the Archive box. It hangs away from the damp wall, there is room for airflow around the wall hanging, we have used glass rather the any form of plastic, etc.
The final design was forwarded to several carpenters for quotes and Savage Builders had the box crafted by the carpenters at Jarrett & Lawson. Chris Savage took such care with the final item that even when it had been hoisted on and off and on to the wall for glazing, it had to come off again as a hand print was spotted on the inside!
On Sunday 15th February 2009 our Rector, Reverend Nigel Whitehouse re-dedicated the Millennium wall hanging and dedicated the archive box to the glory of God. Members of Whittlesey Patchwork and Laura Wright were present in the congregation. We were also pleased to welcome Mrs Betty Osbourne, daughter of the late Mrs Gladys Springett, a faithful member of St Mary’s congregation in her lifetime. Whilst celebrating her 90th birthday Mrs Springett asked for donations to be given to The Friends of St Mary’s Church, totalling £110. Upon her death in 2006, we received a bequest of £300 and so the archive box has been dedicated in Mrs Springett’s memory.
We now have a permanent, beautiful memory of the turn of a new Century using God given gifts, to treasure forever.