Church Clock - Church of St.Nicholas, Church Street, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, NR23 1EQ - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

Wells-next-the-Sea is mentioned several times in the Domesday book of 1086, by which time it was clearly already a substantial place, but no church was mentioned. In 1202 Ramsey abbey obtained a charter allowing it to expand the port, but the church stands a little way outside the early C13th planned town by the harbour, and was certainly already well established by the early C13th.

The Grade II* listed church is dedicated to St.Nicholas and is Perpendicular in origin, but was badly damaged in a fire in 1879 and almost wholly rebuilt to designs of Herbert Green the diocesan architect. There is no fabric surviving from pre-Perpendicular times but the tower is C15th and from this and some other surviving C15th fragments the Medieval church was substantial and well detailed. The extent to which Green's post-fire restoration replicated what was there is not clear, but loose fragments in the church, which are more complex in their detailing than Green's work, suggest that he considerably simplified the architecture in many places. The cost of the work was £7,000 and the church was re-dedicated in 1883. An additional £2,000 was spent in 1887 on the organ, the pews, the bells and completing the south porch. The north-west vestry was added in 1966.

The tall west tower has offset buttresses and two string courses, and is largely C15th. There is a three-light west window over the west door, three-light bell openings with louvres on each face and small lancets on north, west and south faces. The embattled parapet has blind, panelled tracery, and the west doorway has rows of stylised flowers, mostly original. There is a complete Taylor ring of bells in the tower, cast in 1890 at the foundry in Loughborough. The bells are rung from a balcony in the tower but with a tower of 115ft the length of rope on the bells can be daunting for learner ringers. This combined with the weight of the two heaviest bells means that only the front six bells are rung regularly. They are, however, rung weekly for divine service and weddings.

A clock face sits within a double drip mould on the west face below the bell opening. The face is painted blue with gold-coloured minute marks, Roman numerals and hands.

Words from British Listed Buildings and Pevsner's Norfolk 1 Buildings with amendments from own on site observations.

Coordinates are for the tower.

Status: Working Display: Mounted Year built: Not listed Web link to additional info: Not listed

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Photo of clock.

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