Following a fundraising campaign, generous donations from villagers, and a £250 grant from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, Cottingham’s church clock has been repaired and refurbished by specialist clockmakers Clockwise Restorations.
The clock was restarted at 10.30am on Sunday 8 June, when villagers gathered together to hear the clock chime 11am, for the first time in 10 years!
Chiming hours
When the clock chimed previously, it did so on the hour throughout the night. However, in the interests of being a good neighbour, the clock is now fitted with a night silencer.
When the clock was restarted on 8 June 2025, it was set to chime from 7am to 11pm. There then followed a 24 day consultation period (from 26 June to 20 July) where residents of Cottingham and Middleton were asked to complete a short survey to provide their views on the clock chimes.
Based on the results of this survey, the PCC decided to reduce the clock chiming hours to 8am to 10pm, from 26/27 August until further notice. You can read the letter from the PCC regarding this change, and also the full clock survey report, below.
View letter from Cottingham PCC, 22 August 2025
View clock survey report
About the clock
Cottingham’s Church clock was manufactured in 1881 by Croydon clock makers Gillett and Bland.
The repairs and upgrade to the clock include a night silencing kit; two new motor, sone to wind the clock and the other to operate the chime; a GPS receiver to automatically switch the time from GMT to BST; and a battery back up, so the night silencer will still work in the case of power failure. The clock itself still has to be manually moved forward one hour in the spring, and stopped for one hour in the autumn, when the hours change.
The clock chime works by a hammer hitting the outer rim of the tenor bell, and there is a lever that lifts the hammer off the bell. This is done automatically to silence the chimes overnight, and manually when the church bells are rung, to prevent damage.
Check out our photos and videos below (from Dave Palmer).
Videos
Fundraising and donations summary
Thank you so much to the village bell ringing team, who have led the fundraising campaign, and everyone who has supported us. It really shows what can be achieved when a community works together! Here’s a summary of where the money has come from for the refurbishment project.
| Downsizing sale at Village Store, (Mary Knott) 8 March 2024 | £553 |
| 24 Carat Jazz concert, 30 June 2024 | £720 |
| Phoenix Saxophone Orchestra concert, 31 August 2024 | £600 |
| Wine Safari (previous fundraising) | £3,600 |
| Donation from Lawson’s Coaches | £400 |
| Donation from village copyholders | £1,000 |
| Christmas craft sale, Village Store, (Jo Leaning and Chris West-Robinson), Nov/Dec 2024 | £210 |
| Ghost Stories for Christmas, December 2024 | £900 |
| Alright JACK concert, 27 April 2025 | £450 |
| Individual donations including from Oh Brother!, Owen & Ann Davison, Pam Harrison and Jane Smith | £1,391 |
| Gift aid | £238 |
| Worshipful Company of Clockmakers | £250 |
| Total raised | £10,312 |