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Wells Cathedral, Somerset

The clock at Wells Cathedral. This image is copyright free.

Wells Cathedral in Somerset, built between 1175 and 1490 is interesting for many reasons. But it is the cathedral clock which holds much of the cathedral's story and that of the world that created it. Mechanical clocks first developed in religious communities, the members of which wanted to be prompt and regular in their various duties. Early mechanical clocks consisted of bells which would sound at regular times. Later, around 1334, a clock face was added to give a visual display of passing time. The Wells Cathedral clock first built in 1392, and improved in the following centuries, offered an audible and visual sense of time. This was an age when the main force holding communities together was religion. Religious bonds were considered more important than national identities. The bells of a church, audible over a local area gave a sense of belonging. At a time when clocks were hand built and hugely expensive, the local church or cathedral clock was the only one which people lived by. This sense of community was increased by the fact that there was no standard time as there is today. Each part of the country would run on its own time, each group of people living in its own little time bubble, as defined by its local church clock.

 

As the Church's main function was to provide structure in a generally chaotic period in history, the Church was naturally drawn to clockwork regularity. The Church banned the unpredictable business of theatre, but it allowed ritual which, at least the Church hoped, would play out in the same way each time. Clocks offered a perfect way to present unchanging ritual. Pieces of mechanical drama could be added to clock mechanisms. The clock driven, and absolutely predictable, drama at Wells Cathedral involved two pairs of knights circling each other in combat. As the bell struck the hour one of each pair was unhorsed. Out of sight inside the clock each fallen knight would regain his saddle to go through the same ritual an hour later. The Wells clock also presented the predictable movement of a larger drama based on Biblical dogma, with the clock face presenting a sun circling the earth.

But of course a sense of religious stability had to compete with life's unpredictability. Times were changing. In the eleventh century, while Wells Cathedral was being built, King John was trying to introduce a new professionalism into England's government. The idea that people should be given jobs in government on merit was a radical and, for many, unwelcome idea. Traditional sources of authority, like the nobility and the Church, did not approve. A dispute between John and the Church authorities over who should appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury led to papal declaration against John in 1207. Known as an "Interdict", this declaration meant in effect that the clergy went on strike, and would deal with nothing except baptism and last rites for the dying. No one could get married, and no one could be buried in churchyards. This dragged on for four years, and when John did not give in he was excommunicated. And historians, who were all churchmen, got on with painting a very dark picture of John. John was forced to back down in 1213, when he accepted the pope as overlord of England and Ireland. This period of turmoil in John's reign is reflected in the walls of Wells Cathedral being built at that time. Because of the Interdict all work on the cathedral stopped for four years. During this four year pause, building technology advanced, allowing the use of bigger blocks of stone, which were duly used when building recommenced in 1213. Visitors to Wells Cathedral today can still see the point in the wall where smaller blocks give way to bigger blocks. But even now with the clergy back to work, and Wells Cathedral being built with bigger stones, the powers-that-be continued to oppose John's fancy ideas about merit. An alliance of powerful nobles and churchmen forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, which confirmed legal limitations on the king's power. The Bishop of Wells was amongst the gathered traditionalists who forced John to sign on the dotted line at Runnymede and accept the Magna Carta.

The Bishop of Wells may have maintained the status quo at Runnymede, but in the end nothing could stop the changes that were coming. Old sources of authority were slowly eroded, and traditional certainties fell away. And perhaps the clock once again shows how powerful these changes were. Clocks were one of the first items to require, and to encourage, the use of mass production techniques. Machine tools were being used by the 1540s in clock making. The end of church power is very much symbolised by mantel piece clocks, and then wrist watches, allowing everyone access to the clock which had once been monopolised by the Church. The Church no longer set time. The development of transport and communication systems meant that isolated communities all relying on their own church dictated time would no longer work. Time became secular and universal, and time keeping became the province of everyone who could own a wrist watch. In many ways the history of the modern world is held in the Wells Cathedral Clock. The original medieval clock face is still there, but its original mechanism is now held at the Science Museum in London.

 

 

Opening Times: Open daily all year. No tours take place between 12 midday and 1pm from April to September.

April to September 7am - 7pm.

October to March 7am - 6pm.

Directions: Wells Cathedral is in the Middle of Wells, Somerset, close to the A39. Click here for an interactive map centred on Wells Cathedral.

Address: Wells Cathedral, Chain Gate, Cathedral Green, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2UE

Access: All of the ground floor is accessible to wheelchair users. A wheelchair is available for visitor use. Information is available in Braille and tactile format. The Cathedral has a loop system.

Contact:

telephone: 01749 674483

fax: 01749 832210

e-mail: office@wellscathedral.uk.net

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