Bridgwater Church Clock of 1393 - Where did it go?

An Ancient Clock

An article found in the Somerset Archaeological & Natural History Society a while back sparked my curiosity.  Apparently Bridgwater had a mechanical working clock in the parish church of St. Mary's which was tended to by the Seneschals (a sort of steward for important houses or organisations).

Taken from SANHS, Proceedings Volume 66.

The "small essentials of brass and iron" would indicate a mechanical movement.  Now this sounds a bit far fetched, a working mechanical clock in Bridgwater earlier than 1393.  Wells Cathedral Clock is mentioned regarding payments made to the keeper of the clock in 1392-93 (Reid, R. D. (1963). Wells Cathedral. Friends of Wells Cathedral. pp. 34–36) which as we can see is the same time period mentioned above.

 Archive photo of the original clock now housed at the Science Museum, London.

Wells Cathedral Clock is an astronomical clock which is sometimes attributed to Peter Lightfoot (or Lightfote), who was a monk at Glastonbury.  Very little is known about him but widespread traditions assign him to the clocks at Wells, Wimbourne and Exeter.  Leyland, a well known antiquary, who wrote in the 16th Century, saying of Glastonbury Abbey "Horologium Petrus Lightfote Monacus fecit hoc opus", which roughly translates to "Peter Lightfote the Monk did [this] work [on the] clock". This mention of course, is centuries after the event.   As far as I am aware there is no mention of Peter Lightfoot in the Chained Library of Wells Cathedral. 

There are four surviving medieval astronomical clocks in England:  

Wells Cathedral, Somerset.  First mentioned 1392.  Attributed to Peter Lightfoot, Monk of Glastonbury.

Wimborne Minster, Salisbury. Circa. 1320.  Also attributed to Peter Lightfoot. 

Ottery St. Mary church, Devon. Attributed to Bishop John de Grandisson 1327-69.

Cathedral of St. Peter Exeter, Devon.  Thought to date around 1484.

 

Images Courtesy of Wikipedia

The two top clocks are both attributed to Peter Lightfoot although there would be circa. 70 years expanse if the dates are correct.  They are also very different in design.  Although Peter Lightfoot is historically attributed to these clocks, most authorities on such matters say there is no evidence.

What has this got to do with Bridgwater? 

In Bridgwater between 1321-1367 (and possibly later) there was a street called "Horelokesstrete" (including spelling variations).  I recognised this straight away as an old English pronunciation of "Horloge Straat".  Horloge is the Dutch word for 'Watch'.  Even today, in English, Horologium means the science of time-keeping.  So was there a 'Clock Street', in Bridgwater at that time?  

Several decades later in the Bridgwater Borough Archives between 1373-75 (pay attention to those dates), there is a mention of a "clokkemakyer" being granted £4. 10s. This predates the first mention of Wells Cathedral Clock by approximately 19 years.  £4. 10s is equivalent to approximately £25,000 in today's money.  (If anyone can correct me on this amount, please do!)  John Smok, who at that time was receiver [of payments] for the community of Bridgwater, along with others commissioned, we assume, a rather expensive clock.

So in about 1373/75 we might assume someone was commissioned to build a rather expensive clock and unlike today, all the working parts would have been made by hand.  This may have took several years.  

John Somer ~ca. 1340 - 1410

Friar John Somer who was entered at the Franciscan Friary in Bridgwater was to become known as a renowned astronomer.  He is best known for his Kalendarium but has many other manuscripts attributed to him.

Image courtesy of Luna

Note the star in this image.  It is very similar to that of the Wells Astronomical Cathedral Clock.

The Bridgwater Heritage Group lists works attributed to John Somer.  This one in particular caught my eye;

"Verus Motus Ultimo Decembri 1393 completus"

  [Finally, in December 1393 completed the Real Movement]

Does this refer to a real movement of a clock?  Maybe referring to the Seneschals and Gild Merchants mentioned earlier and the clock in Bridgwater in 1393?  I don't know but is it too much of a coincidence that we had a leading astronomer in Bridgwater and the Wells Cathedral Astronomical Clock here at roughly the same time?  Is Wells Cathedral Astronomical Clock the original one from Bridgwater?  Any thoughts anyone?

Hannah West MA, BA (Hons.) who is a leading Bridgwater Medieval specialist and myself are to conduct further research into this.

The views of this article is that of the writers and bares no claim on historical events.

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