A giant clock has been reinstalled on the side of Canterbury Cathedral following a three-year restoration project.

In a delicate operation yesterday morning, the dial was carefully winched 120ft from the ground, up one of the Cathedral's iconic towers.

The huge clock face is reinstalled (Video: Canterbury Cathedral)

The clock - which measures eight feet in diameter - was removed in November 2018.

It had been more than 90 years since its last overhaul, and photos from 2018 show the dial was faded and tarnished.

But the Cathedral took advantage of scaffolding that currently clads the building, to bring it down and send it to clock specialists The Cumbria Clock Company, in Cumbria.

In the intervening years, it has been lovingly cleaned and repainted a sleek black, with the Roman numerals that mark out the hours regilded a bright gold.

And yesterday morning, specialists carefully lifted it up the Cathedral's west front, before reinstalling it in its home above the building' south-west door.

The clock mechanism has also undergone restoration.

It is considered "one of the finest examples of workmanship by clock makers G.F. Vale of London".

Made in 1855, it was converted in the 1980s to be driven by electric motors.

The cost of cleaning the dial was met by The Canterbury Journey project, and the cost of restoring the mechanism by a donation from The Guy and Elinor Meynell Charitable Trust.

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