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St Thomas a Becket Church, Shirenewton

This memorial is located on the tower of St Thomas a Becket Church in Shirenewton. The memorial is a clock with a face on each elevation of the tower. A stone memorial in the centre of the village notes that the clock is a war memorial. The Church is listed and located within a conservation area.

In 2014, War Memorials Trust offered a grant of £2,040 through the Small Grants Scheme towards repair works to the memorial. Although the clock is regularly serviced, the parts within the tower which are difficult to access had deteriorated; for example, the gears had corroded which was causing the clock to stop. One of the clock faces had previously been disconnected because of this deterioration and the other faces were in a similar condition. Therefore, repairs were essential to allow the memorial to function. The repair works included removal of the hands from all four clock faces which were accessed by a Bosun’s chair and the dial motion works were also removed. The dial motion works were dismantled, cleaned, repaired and re-bushed. Following the repair works the dial motion works and face hands were re-installed, again through access with a Bosun’s chair and the clock is once again fully-functioning.

The clock was built by Gillett & Co. and was second-hand when it was installed in the early 1920s; the date ‘1921’ on the clock has been painted over another date which supports this.

The general inscription on the stone memorial in the village reads:

“The clock in the Church tower
and
this tablet
were
erected
in memory of the men
of this parish
who fought and fell in the Great War
1914-1918.”

“Also in memory of the men
who fell in the World War 1939-1945”

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM5826
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 60780

War Memorials Online: 182308

If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org

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