With the Herald Clock now signed over to us, today we started the actual work to save the historic artefact at David Livingstone Centre.
The stone clock, weighing over a third of a tonne, a gift to the centre in 1941 was due to be demolished, but we stepped in during recent weeks with a plan to save and restore it.
Today, Friday 16th August 2019, we employed contracted plant and labour and under our supervision (mucking in when it got stuck outside!), have now removed the clock from the inside of Shuttle Row and transported it offsite, away from David Livingstone Centre for storage and renovation.
It was a 4 man job to extract the clock safely, utilising a pallet truck and hiab lorry. Safety was paramount with us all inducted onsite and following our own previously submitted risk assessment and method statement. The whole operation went very smoothly.
What now?
Well, in the coming months, the clock will be cleaned, with new ironwork and an art deco style new face put in. A new mechanism will modernise it, wired to mains power, with new glass weather protection and seals. When renovated, it will be offered back to the renovated David Livingstone Centre, perhaps to embed in one of the walls outside for permanent display. If that is unsuitable, a new public location in Blantyre will be found.
Donations
People have been SO generous. We’ve now raised the £585 needed for the renovation! A real community led project!
We were thinking of raising a further small sum (later), from Telegraph magazine sales, so that the 28 people who donated to this project can have their surnames inscribed into the new clock face, preserving their part in protecting Blantyre’s history. They are currently in alphabetical order:
Bate, Bell, Brown, Crossan, Cunningham, Fee, Hambley, Henderson, Irwin, Kerrigan, Macrae, Marr, Marshall, Mather, McDonald, McGibbon, McLachlan, McLean, Monk, Nicholl, Pollock, Reamonn, Robb, Rochead, Slater, Veverka, Watson and Watt.
Thank you to everybody who donated. It’s safe to say, from 2020, this clock will be on public display in Blantyre for many more generations.
