Rye’s St Mary’s church clock was stopped for 36 hours from 8:05pm on Friday, June 23. The Britten Sinfonia (featuring in the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival) were about to perform their orchestral concert on the stage in the church. But the swinging of the clock’s pendulum high over their heads (and away to the side) was considered to be too interfering, and they had the pendulum stopped and thus the clock at 8:05pm.
Unfortunately it had not been pre-arranged and so at at 8:05am and 8:05pm on Saturday there was no-one available to re-start the pendulum. But at 8:05am on Sunday, June 24 verger Ben Mason did the deed! A skilled flicking ‘push’ at precisely the right minute, using the immensely long bamboo pole – and once again the tourists could stand at the top of Lion Street waiting ever-hopeful for the Quarter Boys to strike.
Image Credits: Isabel Ryan .