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The superb and ancient Medieval clock in Wells Cathedral. Another one of those shots where i clamped the camera to part of the church fabric and largely hoped for the best. The little figures that race round every quarter hour are on a corbel above, but proved too illusive to catch for the moment, but the gloriously coloured dial was just as eyecatching.

Mashael Al-Shuwayer, Lawrence OP, *Hairbear, Lark Ascending, and 29 other people added this photo to their favorites.

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  1. mpaulda™ 51 months ago | reply

    this clock is quite amazing.
    what always amazes me is the craftmanship as we know all was done by hand, whether it is something like this or a structure. outshines us today..

  2. mark frederick 51 months ago | reply

    what wonderful colours here dave!

  3. •DMM 51 months ago | reply

    Very interesting.

  4. Lillput 51 months ago | reply

    Gorgeous. And the picture.

  5. Martin Beek 51 months ago | reply

    I like this clock very much, but one really need a film to show it in action.

  6. TW Collins 51 months ago | reply

    Beautifully captured, Dave. Despite having and interest in horology, I've never seen anything quite like this. ;~D

  7. d_rod 51 months ago | reply

    Very classic and beautiful detail. Wonderful capture, Dave.

  8. CarbonNYC 51 months ago | reply

    The numerals are beautiful. The framing works perfectly.

  9. archidave 51 months ago | reply

    Cheers. Its irreplaceable and beautiful. Almost 700 yeas old now in parts!

    Nor me! It just keeps on givinG!

    oh no! You missed a highlight of teh cathedral! Its smashing! Especially when it chimes!

    Thanks Tom. It was your advice that convinced me into this one

    Thank you Neil. its a smashing piece or both art and engineering

    very kind. Thank you

    As i mentioned in my description, above the dial there is aa little carousel with figures of knights on horseback. They spin round on the quarter-hour and one knocks the other off his horse with his jousting lance. They have been doing EXACTLY the same thing for almost 70 years and it still works!

    Thanks Mark. I did have a high contrast black and white version taht i was quite partial too, but I am glad that i was persuaded to post this one. Glad you liek it ;)

    thnak you :)

    Thanks Lix. Yeh teh subject is really the most fascinating thing, though teh framing is something I am pleased with

    yeh it was difficult to get any closer with this lens too. I couldnt get close enough to the horses going round. Hope you liek the shot Martin. tahnk you

    Horology hey! wow! Yeh tis is something of a rarity. The clock is almost 700 years old. There was originally no dial, but simply a chiming mechanism. The painted dial is, If i recall correctly, 15th Century. It si a beautiful object though, and still working

    Thanks David. I was glad to be able to frame this detail nicely like this


    I am still having trouble trying to make out exactly what the numerals say, or why there are so many. the distribution is a bit queer too. Any ideas David?

  10. CarbonNYC 51 months ago | reply

    Many ideas, but none of them based on actual information. :) However, the Wikipedia page on Arabic numerals suggests that the very earliest appearances of them in England is in the middle of the 15th century, so it is entirely possible they were kind of "making it up as they went along" -- and thereby establishing some conventions and implementing some conventions-that-were-never-to-be. Regardless, it's a fascinating array of symbols and quantities. The book I'm reading now is talking about the Greek terms Chronos (absolute time) vs. Kairos (subjective time), so I've been giving horology a lot of thought recently. It's nice to see an image as cluttered as my evolving thoughts on the matter. :)

  11. archidave 51 months ago | reply

    I looked more closely at the image this time, and I have just realised that the figures are Roman Numerals, but drawn in the Mediaeval italic fashion that may as well mean they were written in Cuneiform. They are numbered from One at teh bottom, though it appears they used an alternative figure for teh number 10 because it looks as though nine is 'Ir' not IX. In essence this must be a dial with the full 24 hours of the day on. The innermost dial goes only to 30 and i assume that this is the seconds, but oddly it is in anticlockwise array!

  12. CarbonNYC 51 months ago | reply

    What are the two Roman-derived numerals in the bottom right? It's hard to believe the bottommost rightmost one is '22,' however the one to its left doesn't look like '11' because it looks so similar to '9.' but I think you're better able to pick out the relevant shapes, because that 'V' (combined with the nonstandard 'IIII') all threw me off. (Maybe I,r means effectively "one more than r"? But 'VI' and 'VII' don't support that interpretation!)

  13. archidave 51 months ago | reply

    i guess taht it is set out in two twelve hour blocks, and taht that number is rI (if r is X or ten then this would be the second 11). Teh twelfth would be midnight which would fall on teh red star at the bottom. I am speculating all this however :)
    From midnight clockwise I think it is I, II, III, IIII, V, VI VII, VIII, Ir, then one assumes... r, rI, rII, then the cycle repeats from noon down the second half of the dial.

  14. CarbonNYC 51 months ago | reply

    But then you're reading it upside down. The putative "11" in the photo is "I.r" to me -- am I missing something? (To restate, your proposed numeral sequence makes complete sense to me, but that's not what I'm seeing pictured here -- it's something weirder.)

  15. th.egilson 51 months ago | reply

    Fantastic shot.

  16. archidave 51 months ago | reply

    Thank you very much :)

  17. Gordy MSt 51 months ago | reply

    Wonderful!

  18. archidave 51 months ago | reply

    Very kind of you. thank you

  19. ian_fromblighty 50 months ago | reply

    What a fantastic piece of craftsmanship - I wonder how long this took to build.

  20. SFDrew 18 months ago | reply

    Wonderful shot.

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