Watch this space. It looks like things are in hand to get the historic Sir Cloudesley Shovell clock in Rochester High Street back ticking again.

After more than a year of time standing still, moves are afoot to get the historic clock, which stands majestically above the entrance to the Corn Exchange, back working.

It's fallen into such desrepair that its hands have been removed for health and safety reasons and it has been wrapped up in netting to prevent other bits falling off.

Meetings have been held with conservationists, quotes drawn up and a craftsman drafted in from Chatham’s Historic Dockyard to carry out the £40,000 project.

Cllr Adrian Gulvin, who is in charge of resources, is leading the campaign to get it repaired and is hopeful that work could start in about a month.

He said: “It’s frustrating, but these things move slowly.

“The truth is that the council does not have the money to
meet the full budget and we
are looking for grants to meet the cost. I have also been looking
at ways of engineering the budget.

“Surprisingly, the most expensive element is the bracket, beam and Sir Cloudesley coat of arms and not the clock itself.

“We were originally told the fittings would have to be replaced at huge expense, but a craftsman from the dockyard has looked at the clock and thinks he can refurbish.”

Cllr Gulvin added that it had become badly damaged over the centuries and now bits were falling off.

He said: “That is why it is now shielded by netting and we have removed the hands for safety reasons.

“We have had an estimate from a specialist company in Wales, which was reasonable.

“My aim is to get it working and looking bright and shiny before the start of next year’s tourism season. I don’t think that is an unrealistic deadline.”

Bob Ratcliffe, president of the City of Rochester Society, said: “It’s such a shame. It’s a vital part of the landscape and leaves a gap in the street scene.”

Rochester’s most famous son, Charles Dickens, was not such a fan.

The author, describing it in the Uncommercial Traveller, wrote: “There was a public clock – which I had supposed to be the finest clock in the world: whereas it now turned out to be as inexpressive, moon-faced, and weak a clock as ever I saw.”

The present circular clock dates from 1771, replacing the original square shaped dial.

The Corn Exchange clock and “re-fronting”’ was a gift to the town from Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell in 1706.

Sir Cloudesley was MP for Rochester between 1695 to 1701.