“MAKE THE MOST OF TODAY. TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN. YESTERDAY IS HISTORY. TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY. TODAY IS A GIFT. THAT’S WHY IT IS CALLED THE PRESENT.”
(Alice Morse Earle)

Now is the time to set the clock running again, to keep up with time, review history, reveal mystery, accept the gift and live again with the present. This is being achieved through the restoration of the War Memorial clock in the tower of St Nicholas’ Church, here in Withernsea.

The clock was installed immediately after World War II as both a visible and audible memorial to the fallen. We will soon commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of those hostilities, so now is a good time to begin work. The clock was gifted by subscription with donations from hundreds of contributors. Their generosity was amazing considering prevalent post war hardship. Both the clock and the bells are a feature of cultural history and as it was manufactured by the famous tower clock company Potts of Leeds, it is an artefact worthy of restoration.

Team member and church bell ringer, Peter Cook, became connected with maintenance of the clock through bell ringing. He held teaching practices and arranged for ringers from Roos and Withernsea to ring the bells for Sunday services for about ten years. Mr Noel Bolster asked him to look after the clock as he was finding it difficult to ascend the tower. The clock utilises the heaviest church bell (13 cwt) as the hour bell, so the strike mechanism has to be disengaged from the clock while the bells are ringing. There are five clock gear boxes accessible only from the narrow beams of the bell frame. The gear trains are open to salt air corrosion and therefore need to be cleaned and oiled regularly on a routine together with bell maintenance.

ST NICHOLAS' BELLS.

The belfry houses seven bells. Five bells were cast and installed by James Barwell (Birmingham) in 1894. These bells were given to the Church by “The Ladies of Withernsea”, shortly after the Church was rebuilt. The heaviest bell weighs about 660 kg (13 cwt), is 41 inches in diameter and strikes the note of F#, and is heard frequently as the clock hour-bell. A sixth bell, the Treble, was installed by John Taylor & Co in 1930 to complete the current set hung on a wooden frame to ring in the traditional English manner. A further bell was cast and installed by John Taylor & Co in 1948. This bell is hung ‘dead’ on an iron frame and is chimed as a service bell from the ground floor. This bell was intended to be the second bell of a future octave.

There is little recorded history of ringing on these bells. Full peals of 5040 changes are feats that are recorded and published and the first one recorded here was in 1931 shortly after the augmentation from five to six bells. Another peal was recorded in 1933 which was the last one before 2001, when a peal was rung to mark completion of restoration work on the tower. Regular ringing for Church services by local ringers resumed in 2008 and continued until 2014.

Ringing ceased completely on closure of the Church. The bells, their frame and fittings remain in good general condition but exposure to salt air has caused some deterioration of the wheels, which is easily repaired. There is local interest in bringing the bells back into service for special National celebrations and local occasions.