Wednesday Nov. 21st 2007
AFTERNOON TEA at TOWNELEY
Celebrating the installation of The Millennium Clock in the Great Hall
with Professor Alan Smith.
A wonderful turn out of Towneley Hall Society members, led by the hall’s curator, Susan Bourne, welcomed Professor Alan Smith once again to Towneley Hall.
Professor Smith explained just how the clock worked, the minute hand of this remarkable clock going round the dial every two hours and the second hand going round its own dial once every two minutes. He had re-created Richard Towneley’s Greenwich Clock for the exhibition ‘The Towneley Time Trials’ in 1999, using only an illustration and information in letters from John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal at the time (1671/72) In August 2007 this reconstruction of the original clock returned to Towneley, a generous gift from Alan Smith. The clock case of ebonised old pine (paid for by the Towneley Hall Society) was also designed by Alan Smith and made by Mark Hopkins of Heywood.
Professor Smith further entertained society members with an illustrated lecture outlining the history of the original clock from its first days at Greenwich Observatory to the present day and giving details of the people involved in the development of this innovative clock including, of course, Richard Towneley.
Following this most interesting and informative lecture, society members enjoyed refreshments in the Great Hall.
