Clock Winder Wanted

The clocktower at Torquay’s harbour side was completed in 1902 commemorating Richard Mallock, a prominent local figure and the member of Parliament for Torquay from 1886 to 1895. A local man Keith Fursdon clambered up the tower and wound the clock mechanism each week since 1963. Sadly Keith died recently, and no one else has done the job. Hence the stopped clock, showing different times. He said that the most important part of the job was keeping slim so that he could fit through the narrow hatchway at the top of the seventy foot structure. I was at a little meeting earlier today at a cafe opposite and a friend of mine, who lives very close, said he might volunteer. I think he is slim enough. It makes a very ornate roundabout, which the Torquay sightseeing train is just negotiating.