Clocktower built for King’s coronation restored for Queen’s Jubilee

[THE 120-YEAR-OLD Coronation Clocktower has been returned to The Crescent in Sheerness, Kent, after seven months of detailed repair work by clock and dial restoration specialists Smith of Derby. The clock and tower were returned to their rightful place in May from Smiths workshop – in time for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Having made the clock originally, Smith’s were well positioned to undertake the restoration work, taking on the additional responsibility of restoring the tower and creating from scratch a number of original pieces that had been lost over the years. Built in 1902, the Grade Two-listed timepiece was unveiled on 26 June of that year to mark the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. The original clocktower contract with Walter McFarlane & Co of Glasgow was to cast and supply the 34ft 6in-high 8-ton cast iron clock tower at a cost of £350.

During the restoration the previous colour scheme of red, white and blue was stripped and replaced with the original colours of holly bush green with dashes of gold and red. Four dragon sculptures – which sit at each corner at the top of the tower – and 24 small red flowers were bead-blasted and gilded with 22.5 carat gold leaf, while the tower’s 100kg (220lb) bell was cleaned and polished. It was cast by the John Taylor and Co foundry of Loughborough, who had cast Great Paul, the great bell of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Smith of Derby clock mechanism and its 4ft diameter dials have been repaired, together with the electrical illumination from within, which was originally gas. The work has also included the fabrication from scratch of the long-lost lanterns, matching those originally installed; however, now with LED lighting.

Before 1902 The Crescent junction in Sheerness town centre was illuminated by The Big Lamp, described by the Sheerness Times as a ‘fifteenfoot column supporting a very large lantern’. It protected eight or nine large batwing gas burners, which lit The Crescent brilliantly for those days.

To continue that function four large brass gas lanterns were fitted to four sides of the octagonal clock tower. Those lanterns were then abandoned in favour of the more modern – for the time – electricity. They were then removed in the 1960s, firstly being replaced with hanging baskets and then finally being removed altogether. The baskets were then replaced, together with the original gas finials, as part of a major refurbishment in 2002, the clock’s centenary year.

A modern addition, the clocktower now boasts a new plaque, part written in Braille for people with a sight disability, which reads: “Swale Borough Council extensively restored 120 year old Sheerness Clock Tower during the Platinum Jubilee year of HM Queen Elizabeth II 2022.”

Martin Butchers, complex projects manager at Smith of Derby, who oversaw the project, said: “It has been fantastic right from the start and has also involved our apprentice team. It’s all gone very much to plan. Obviously, we expected a few hiccoughs along the way but we did a trial run back in Derby and the whole structure has gone back together very well.”

Cllr Monique Bonney, cabinet member for the economy and property, said: “The project has gone fantastically well, although it started off as a paint job and then we discovered some severe structural defects. So it was decided to do a full nine-yards restoration.

“It's amazing what Smith of Derby has done. It's absolutely worth the money. They have not only fixed all the structural problems, but discovered the original paint scheme and created hand-made lanterns which are very similar to how they would have looked when the clock was new.”

Swale Council worked with Rose Street Primary School on a time capsule to go under the clock as a way of encouraging local children to consider the passage of time and explore the history of the town; feeling connected to its past and future. q • For further information visit the website at www.smithofderby.com, call 01332 345569 or contact Jane Betts at jane.betts@smithofderby.com