Heritage Clock for Cradley
Halesowen, England, United Kingdom
Aim
To restore the dial saved from St Luke's Church, Cradley Heath and install it at St Peter's Church in Cradley for the whole community.
This Crowdfunder Page has now closed - our project is still ongoing and we are still accepting donations.
Our heritage saved just in time....
In October 2016, St Luke's Church in Cradley Heath was demolished and many items from the church were unfortunately not saved. However, during demolition, the clock dial, which had served Cradley Heath since 1949, was rescued from being broken up for scrap and has found a new home one mile up the road at the neighbouring Church of St Peter in Cradley between Halesowen and Stourbridge.
Your donation will fund:
1. The repair of broken ironwork on the dial including repainting, re-gilding and re-glazing.
2. Fixing of the restored dial to the tower and a new clock movement installed to make it work.
3. If we raise enough money we want to install chimes using the church bells to sound the hours and quarter hours. (They can be turned off at night).
Above, the dial in it's original home at St Luke's
As St Peter's is on a hill overlooking Cradley Heath, the chimes will also be heard in the town where the dial originated from strengthening the link between the communities of Cradley and Cradley Heath.
The tower at Cradley was built in 1875 and has a space for a clock but one has never been installed.
Now the time has come to put this right!
Can you or your business support us in saving a part of our heritage and give it a new lease of life?
Please give a donation no matter how large or small so that the memory of St Luke's Church will live on and the restored clock dial and chimes will become a community clock for everyone!
Any surplus money raised will go towards future maintenance of the church and improvements.
Roger Whitehouse (former Church Warden of St Luke’s) said
“When St. Luke's Church closed, some items that had been used in the church were shipped to foreign lands. They are now being used in various parts of the world in many different churches, so you can only imagine the pride felt by members of St. Luke's congregation when they heard that St. Peter's Cradley, a church very local to St. Luke's in Cradley Heath, had made a request to save the clock dial.
The dial was a prominent feature on the High Street of Cradley Heath for sixty-seven years, providing a time check for the community, at the heart of the chain making industry in the Black Country. It is hoped, that when completed, the restored dial can serve the community of Cradley, in a similar manner, over many years to come.”
Above, the new home for the dial at St Peter's, Cradley
This project successfully funded on 27th May 2018