1/7/2024 0 Comments Big ben word clock![]() A small fan on the workbench shakes its head from side to side. McCann grows tense, clears his throat frequently. Maintaining a clock whose accuracy was drop-jaw when built and still impressive looks oddly extempore. "It was a job that I could do and go home every evening."īack in the mechanism room, Robeson removes the old ratchet by whacking a length of wood with a mallet. In 1997, Westworth took a horology degree. "That's the ceiling." They laugh, and tie the fan in position. " a dull thud and Robeson's muted voice sound through the floor. Westworth pulls on a blue nylon rope, raising the fan. "So romantic," sniffs Smith, wiping a dry eye. The couple met during the Bosnian war – after leaving the army, Westworth drove aid vehicles there for three years. I would've liked a higher ceiling." His wife texts to say she is watching CSI. "But they didn't schedule planned maintenance. "The Victorians were amazing engineers," says Westworth, negotiating its scaffold grid like someone from the Ministry of Silly Walks. Robeson unplugs the quarter-train's break shaft from the mechanism Smith and Westworth climb to the link room to hoist the fan attached to the other end of it. My missus hates clocks." He glances around the room. Even so, the 50-year-old became a "clockie", but not one without problems. After breaking his back at work, he expected to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair somebody suggested clock-making, a sedentary occupation. Smith, a former lorry driver from south Wales, has sparkling glasses and a sweat-film on his forehead. ![]() But tonight it's the turn of the big one. Earlier, McCann's five-strong team buzzed through Parliament, changing 1,000 clocks. ![]() "They knew how to build, those Victorians." Towards the summit of Pugin's clock tower he scuffs and enters the mechanism room, in which click and clack Big Ben's guts. He looks upwards at the spiral staircase. "Not a good idea before charging up 334 steps," Mike McCann says, holding his stomach and laughing. The story begins at 8.30pm, and the Keeper of the Great Clock just ate a huge chicken yakisoba. In lieu of time travel, we joined them exactly one year ago, to find out what'll happen this weekend behind the world's most iconic clock face. Enter a small group of timepiece fanatics known as the clockmakers of Westminster. This represents a logistical challenge, possibly a nightmare. There are about 2,000 of them in the Houses of Parliament, among them Big Ben.
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