Church Clock - Church of St.Margaret of Antioch, The Green, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, SS17 0BY - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

Granted Grade I listing, this ancient church was established in the C12th but is mainly of C14th build with extensive remains from both the C12th and C13th. There are later alterations. Built of ragstone rubble with some flint and limestone dressings and with tiled roofs.

The nave is circa 1180, north arcade and parts of the south arcade are C13th, the west of the south arcade, the clerestorey, north and south aisles, and the chancel are C14th, whilst the south porch is C16th.

The north tower is of 1883 built to replace a collapsed earlier tower at the east end of the north aisle, hence the short clerestorey on the north side. Of three stages it has straight buttresses on the north corners, large 'perpendicular' bell openings and corner pinnacles with parapets. There is some chequered and carved stone decoration at all levels and three clock faces. It holds a complete Taylor ring of eight bells cast in 1939 hung for ringing in the English style. The ringing chamber is at the second level reached by a spiral staircase in the south-east corner. There are two inscriptions commemorating its building in 1883 running the width of the tower on a level with the bottom of the ringing chamber windows, that on the east face in English reads:- " this tower once down / to God again rebuilded rings with pleasing strain ". The short first line wraps round the rebuilding date, 1883. The first line of the inscription on the north face also wraps round, here a statuette of St.Margaret of Antioch, the church's patron saint. It is in Latin and reads:- " ecce turris olim strata / deo rursus exornata resonanti voce grata ".

Of the three clocks faces two are similar and appear older than the third. The east and west faces are directly painted onto a lozenge-shaped chamfered backing plate, Roman numerals and hour/minute marks spaced between concentric circles all in black on a dull blue/black ground. The hands are simple without visible counterbalancing which must be in the tower. There is a decorative 3D 'leaf and fruit' motif at each corner of the plate, the whole under a chamfered drip mould.

The north face is special, a commemoration of Queen Victoria's jubilee of 1887. There is a similar-shaped backing plate but the concentric rings, the hour/minute marks and the Roman numerals are all raised above the actual face of the clock which looks to be opalescent and capable of being illuminated from behind. The hands are also different but still without the counterbalancing normally seen. The words VICTORIA JUBILEE are cast into the top two parts of the surround which is also raised above the face. They and the bottom two bars, the date and three 'leaf and fruit' motifs have all had gold leaf applied of which quite a lot remains. This face is also under a chamfered drip mould the same as the other two faces.

My supposition - the clock was installed at the 1883 rebuild, either a new clock or a recycled one. The north clock face was then modified or completely new in 1887 for Victoria's jubilee. None have had much attention since then, all looking like a bit of TLC wouldn't hurt.

Words from British Listed Buildings, Pevsner's Essex Buildings, and amended and added to with own on-site observations.

Co-ordinates are for the tower.

Status: Working Display: Mounted Year built: 01/01/1887 Web link to additional info: Not listed

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