Thursday 25 March 2021

Keeping time.


Neither here in France, nor in my home town of Brighton in the UK, have I needed the assistance of a watch. 

Here our village church is just two kilometres from us, and the bell chimes the hour and half-hour.


Back in Brighton this Clock Tower is just a couple of hundred yards from our front door. It was built in 1888 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and in many ways is the central point of Brighton. The Clock Tower doesn't chime, but the original old mid-14th Century St Nicholas church, which is even nearer to us, does. Time follows us around.

Our Brighton house is in a very quiet little street which is positioned just off one of the busiest streets in town, which connects the railway station with the town centre. On occasions the crowds can be a nightmare, but our little street seems almost unknown, and remains a haven of peace and quiet.

The town clock has a rising and descending sphere on top, which takes one hour to perform its ritual. Not long after the clock was built, the sphere was abandoned, as it made too much noise. I believe it now performs again; maybe they have also removed the noise.

Anyone interested in Clocks, or even the history of fabulous Brighton, will find more here....

 Clock Tower, Brighton - Wikipedia

24 comments:

  1. After working on a mobile library when the clock was watched all the time to arrive at the next stop on time, I stopped wearing a watch when I finished work in 1980

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    1. Since my school days I've been an avid clock-watcher. It was only about 8 (?) years ago that stopped wearing a watch. My life hasn't changed on bit!

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  2. I remember the clock tower and I kind of roughly know where your Brighton house is but not if it is east or west.

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    1. Leaving the Clock Tower to head towards the station, we are off to the left (west).

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  3. The church is a few hundred yards from our garden and it’s so lovely to hear the bells on the hour and pealing when they have weddings. Not been happening much during the pandemic but, hopefully, it will resume again soon. XXXX

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    1. Here it's just a single mechanical bell, but in Brighton they have a pukka team of bell ringers who ring wonderful peels quite often (or at least they did).

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  4. It's a lovely and useful sound.
    Although I remember cursing the village clock that carried on for 24 hours when camping near Pickering....

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    1. A nearby village had bells that rang throughout the night. I think the villagers eventually had words with the Mayor!!

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  5. Brighton is going to be quite a culture shock for you after Lumberjack if you get back this winter!

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    1. I quite like town life. If I'm in town I want to be right in the middle, just as when I'm in the country I like to be well away from everything. I'll adapt.

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    2. vous etes chanceux,ami cro ,j ai toujours reve d habiter un port anglais

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    3. I wouldn't exactly describe it as a 'port', but it's lovely to be beside the sea. Brighton is a great town to live in.

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  6. We used to be in hearing of 2 big clocks when we lived down near the harbour. They were always a few minutes apart. They chime on the hour and half hour. Then we had the navy bugle at 8am every morning and at sundown.
    Now up in the hills I hardly know what day it is and I wouldn't give a damn about the time except traditional people must eat lunch at 1pm every day. The high point of the day .
    Otherwise time rolls on and I work to my own rhythm.

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    1. Here in France we eat lunch at mid-day (12-o-clock). If you pass through any town or village at mid-day, all you will hear are the sounds of knives and forks!

      It rather depends on the wind direction, but occasionally we can hear two, or maybe three, different village bells.

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  7. In Lincoln, where I come from, the cathedral clock used to chime the quarter hours until they made a film there - can't remember the name of the film but I think the leading actor was Ray Milland. He stayed in the hotel near the cathedral and complained to the authorities that the clock kept him awake and it was switched off. Don't know whether it has ever been wound again.

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    1. What a bloody cheek. I would have told him where to go. I do hope it chimes again.

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  8. I think we all have an internal sense of time if we don't rely on clocks too much. Mine works to within about 20 minutes. I've never needed a watch except at work I used to have to know to within a few minutes.

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    1. I'm often saying to Lady M "What time is it, five fifteen?". To which she replies "It's five fifteen". You're right, we do have an in-built clock.

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  9. There is a church on the Thames with a globe like that which rises and falls with the tides. It is a past-times aid to shipping.

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    1. How interesting, I'd not heard of that. Greenwich maybe?

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  10. Seems lovely to spend the autumn and winter in Brighton, spring and summer in SWFrance.

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    1. I used to do it before the turn of the millennium. I'd leave here after Nov 5th, and return after April 1st. It was a very pleasant contrast, Hussle-n-Bustle against peace-n-quiet.

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  11. This past year time hasn't seemed to move, yet time has slipped away.

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    1. You are so right. Even though we keep as busy as possible, time has been playing games with us.

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