Yet stands the clock at two to three?
No. The clock of St Stephen's Church which was stuck at two to three for several weeks earlier this month has at last moved on.
It is now stuck simultaneously at midday and midnight: a feat of malfunctioning 19th-century analogue engineering which it is beyond Spurtle's ability to explain.
Problems at St Stephen's – which supposedly has the longest pendulum in Europe – seem to have begun in late October with the switch back an hour from British Summer Time. Spurtle very soon began receiving a steady tickle of alerts from readers advising us of the St Vincent Street landmark's erratic behaviour. We have been investigating the story ever since.
Who's time is it, anyway?
Installed in 1827–8 as part of the City's Burgh church here, the clock remains – says one Church of Scotland source – the responsibility of the Council. An official spokesperson, however, says that whilst the person responsible within the Church of Scotland is aware of the situation and is working on it, they are away at the moment. It seems to be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
The situation is little better at the City of Edinburgh Council, where an official we spoke to today could not remember which part of their organisation if any deals with the mechanism, and has passed it on to a colleague who is probably too busy to find out any time soon. She feels sure the clock is maintained by James Ritchie & Son.
Both 'family-thinking' firms view the merger as a positive step in protecting and investing in the future of British clock making and conservation. Perhaps they should invest in a receptionist.
Who owns the building?
As reported here, St Stephen's was apparently sold over the summer (Breaking news, 3.6.13). However, yet another Church of Scotland spokesperson tells us that lawyers are still picking over the bones of the deal, and until that process is completed to everyone's satisfaction the name of the new 'owner' will not be made public. Whether this state of legal limbo-with-vultures has anything to do with the delay in fixing the mechanism, no-one is saying.
For the time being, then, locals are stuck with a clock which is mostly inaccurate but bang-on, briefly, twice a day, if you remember to check at exactly the right point. Spurtle is also stuck ... with a story which refuses to progress, resolve or disappear in anything like prompt fashion.
We turn instead, therefore, to the consolations of poetry.
The Clock of Life
The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.
The present only is our own,
So live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in 'Tomorrow'
For the clock may then be still.Robert H. Smith
