Before We Carried Time: The Workshop Keeping Britain's Historic Clocks Ticking

💬 The Cumbria Clock Company has been home to many of Britain’s most famous and most historic clocks. In this workshop the likes of Big Ben, the Salisbury Cathedral Clock and the astronomical clock and Hampton Court Palace.

⚡ Keith Scobie-Youngs set up this clock restoration company 36 years ago with his wife - and since then he’s been in the business of. Through careful and thorough restoration work, Keith and his team make sure the public clocks we know and love continue ticking for hundreds of years.

In this episode I visit his workshop to find out the incredible stories behind these clocks, and the surprisingly rich history behind each of them.

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🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ What it was like to work on The Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben)

➡ The deadly history of the clock at the Royal Courts of Justice in London

➡ How Keith once saved a clock from a burning Church - and it followed him for 40 years

➡ Why one of the clocks in his workshop is in the The Guinness Book of World Records

➡ Jack Spratt’s clock made from old bicycles and knitting needles

Learn about the Cumbria Clock Company: https://clockmaker.co.uk/ 

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou 

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image Credits:

Jack Spratt’s Clock image credit: Brian Robert Marshall / St Andrew's church clock, Wootton Rivers

Winter’s clock image credit: Keith Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Binn’s Clock image credit: kim traynor / Binns Clock, West End

Wishing Fish Clock image credit: David Stowell / Clock in the Regent Arcade

Cats Cradle Pussiewillow III Clock Basildon credit: Piecesofuk, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Hampton Court Astrological Clock: Mike Cattell, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Wells Clock: DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Salisbury Cathedral clock: Seth Whales, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Clock of Royal Courts of Justice: Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons