Pontypridd Town Clock, South Wales

Pontypridd Town Clock, South Wales Page dedicated to the history and ongoing restoration of the Pontypridd town clock, housed in St Catherines tower.

Efforts are being made to restore the clock and chimes to working order and look to see how we can keep it running in the future.

**Update** The eagle eyed among you may have spotted that the Clock is working from this morning.It is now running on te...
12/09/2026

**Update** The eagle eyed among you may have spotted that the Clock is working from this morning.

It is now running on test. As with any machine that has been taken apart, cleaned and put together again, it will need further adjustments to keep it accurate. It is being monitored regularly.

It will not currently be striking on the hour or chiming as further cleaning work is needed on the automatic winders for striking and chiming but the clock itself is running. We are sourcing a quote for night silencing to ensure those local to the church have a peaceful nights sleep.

Thanks as always to Stephen and Al for their tireless dedication and to Keith (Cumbria Clock Co) and the AHS for their support with this project.

The end is in sight!

A very successful day working on the clock! Today was the first time that the clock has been connected and run under its...
27/08/2026

A very successful day working on the clock!

Today was the first time that the clock has been connected and run under its own “steam” in a long time (and definitely since we first took it apart last July).

Steve and Al worked on servicing the original motors and reinstating the chains and connecting them to the movement. There is an issue with the auto winder motor which lifts the weights and keeps the clock movement under power which was unsafe to leave it unsupervised so we have had to stop it. The motors are from around the 1970’s and some of the bearings are noisy and a little “crunchy”.

However, the clock does now run and is linked through to the dials. The dials are also matched although a few minor adjustments will be needed to ensure that the hands are synced. They’ll still be showing 1200 for a while yet but we are almost there.

Thanks as always to Al, members of the Antiquarian Horological Society (Turret Clock Section) and Steve & Keith from Cumbria Clock Company who have given materials and their time freely. So far all of this has been achieved without any cost to anyone.

As we get ever closer to the clock working, I will start to look at grants we can apply for to install night silencing to stop the chiming and striking during the night but this will cost money so we might need to raise it somehow and also maybe look at new winding motors to keep the clock going for the next 40 years!

A cold one in the tower today! We had hoped to get the clock going for NY, however there was still a lot to be done. The...
31/12/2025

A cold one in the tower today!

We had hoped to get the clock going for NY, however there was still a lot to be done. There was the final bit of cleaning to be done on the final bit of motionwork in the belfry which connects the clock with the faces.

Al managed to get most the going train, chiming and striking trains reassembled on the flatbed.

On reassembly a problem was discovered with the “fly” and escapement on the going train (either wear or damage) and it’s not sitting correctly so Steve is kindly taking that away to the workshop to look at for us. Once that’s done and back from the workshop, the clock will be good to go.

Next time we’re there we’re planning on stripping and cleaning the winding motors to see what issues we find there! I’m reliably informed that particular job is a whole day.

Thanks as always to Al and Steve for their dedication to our town clock and to Keith Scobie-Young’s (Cumbria Clock Company) and the Antiquarian Horological Society their ongoing support.

Not long to go now. The finish line is in sight!

I was working today so Al was joined by Steve (Cumbria Clock Company) who is kindly donating his time to help out. Some ...
02/12/2025

I was working today so Al was joined by Steve (Cumbria Clock Company) who is kindly donating his time to help out. Some good work done today on stripping and cleaning the chiming train before reassembly of the newly cleaned “going train”.

There is some wear and excessive play in some of the parts which need addressing through some engineering solutions to ensure it all works but we are confident this can be resolved quickly.

There’s more work to do next week on continuing to reinstate the chiming and striking components and after that it’ll be the turn of the weights and winding motors for attention…. but the end is in sight.

As always, my thanks for the ongoing support of Al,
Steve, the AHS members, Cumbria Clock Company and Keith Scobie-Youngs in getting our town clock back to working order!

Stay tuned for more updates.

I may not have mentioned but I hate old grease. It gets into your hands and you can smell it for weeks afterwards. Conti...
22/11/2025

I may not have mentioned but I hate old grease. It gets into your hands and you can smell it for weeks afterwards. Continuing to clean the going train before the next session in the tower.

Address

St Catherine’s Church, Gelliwastad Grove
Pontypridd
CF372UF

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