As many of you will have noticed, scaffolding has been erected at one end of Radstock Museum in order to restore the clock tower and repair a leaking roof.
Symon Boyd, from Timsbury Clocks, has now removed the hands, the hand drive mechanisms, the bell and the strike mechanism and taken all the pieces requiring restoration to his workshop. He found that apart from needing a very good clean-up, one of the two trunnions on the bell strike shaft had sheared off and the bearings had suffered some minor damage. He is now working to repair the bell strike shaft, is cleaning all the mechanisms and repainting where appropriate.
At the same time as this is going on, one of our volunteers, Bob Taylor, has been working on the paintwork and sorting out the leak, which has been causing water to get into the new research room below the clock tower. The research room is going to be accessible to any museum visitor who wishes to look at any of the museum’s 10,000 digitally stored photos, and soon you will be able to do that and not get wet!
It is anticipated that the scaffolding will be in place for up to eight weeks, which will allow enough time for all the work on the clock strike to be completed and for the tower paintwork to be renewed where required.
We hope that the bell may be able to strike again in a few weeks’ time. While the scaffolding is up it has given museum Volunteer and Treasurer, Jos Binns, an opportunity to take some great photos to add to the museum’s database.
Can you help? The museum is still raising funds to pay for this work – please consider making a one-off or monthly donation by visiting: localgiving.org/charity/radstockmuseum/ Thank you. Lucy Tudor