Time stands still at Haworth church (From Keighley News)

Time stands still at Haworth church

8:00am Sunday 17th February 2013 in News By Miran Rahman

Time is standing still in Haworth – but only as far as one historic clock is concerned!

Haworth Parish Church clock, which is more than 140 years old, stopped ticking about two weeks ago.

It has to be wound manually by volunteers, but this cannot be done until work is carried out to ensure access to its mechanism is made safe.

Priest in charge at the church, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, said he hoped the clock would not be out of action for more than a month.

“People can still get into the bell tower,” he explained. “But to get to the clock mechanism, they have to get up onto a landing via a steep, narrow step-ladder.

“Once we’ve got this woodwork sorted out, it’ll just be a matter of someone going up there again and winding the clock.

“The repairs shouldn’t be too expensive.”

Haworth resident Jens Hislop, who leads the team of volunteer clock winders, said a fit, healthy person could take 45 minutes to wind the clock sufficiently to keep it going for eight days.

“The clock itself is in perfect working order,” he said. “It’s been briefly stopped before a few times when someone has forgotten to wind it, but apart from that, it’s been going more or less full-time since 1870.”