STOP THE CLOCK

by Hattie Ellis (Salisbury)

He worked at the cathedral for twenty years and sits at home amidst the asymmetrical jazz-tocks of his 20-odd collected clocks and tells me tales of time.

The Medieval clock has seen the Wars of the Roses and Oliver Cromwell's holy ding-dong. Its slow seconds have passed the eight-minute shift from Salisbury time to GMT and continue as we chase international time and the aeons of the Space Age.

Some days stand out. There was a troublesome schoolboy who shouted to get attention. He needed a slow dose of patience. The keeper carefully explained the oldest working time mechanism in Europe and let the boy stand inside to stop the clock.

On the way out, the boy broke from the departing trail of children and ran back to give proper thanks. His shining eyes had opened; stilled, they saw. 'Childhood should be magical,' says John.

---

What Hattie Ellis says about STOP THE CLOCK:

John Plaister is a clock expert who has long looked after the Medieval clock in the cathedral. He told me his story in his house in Swindon.