ClockWork Campaign Cornwall

Camborne clock tower has been broken for some time

Do you live in a community where time stands still?

BBC Radio Cornwall's James Churchfield is on a mission to get the county's malfunctioning public clocks working again.

You can hear reports and find out how he's getting on...

The Campaign started on 5 October, when the breakfast programme team told Cornwall about a clock in Truro that wasn't doing what it should be.

The clock in question was the clock on the top of the old West Briton building on Lemon Quay in Truro. It's not worked for at least five years and its hands are frozen in time.

Cornwall's timeless timepieces

The clock on the top of the old West Briton building has been broken for a while

Once news of the campaign got out, listeners to BBC Radio Cornwall got in touch to tell the programme team of the others. Here's the full list we know of where there are other troublesome timepieces:

The Bassett building, Camborne: Working Again. Restarted 12th October 2009

The former West Briton building, Lemon Quay, Truro: Stopped

St Bartholomew's Church, Lostwithiel: Stopped

St Mary's the Virgin Church, St Marys, Isles of Scilly: Has no hands

The Harbour Car Park Public Toilets, Padstow: Approx four hours slow

The Stable Yard Clock, National Trust property, Trelissick, Truro: Stopped

The clock above the laundrette at the bottom of Chapel Hill, Truro. Stopped

The broken clock in St Bartholomew's Church - photo: fosb.org.uk

The exterior of the offices of the Cremyll Ferry: Stopped

Camelot Court Shops, (in the car park off Clarence street) Penzance: Stopped

The Millennium Sculpture, Nanpean: Removed for maintenance, but not yet returned

St Johns Church, Polperro: Stopped

The old clock on St Germans Parish Church:

You can see an image gallery of stopped clocks BBC Cornwall has visited and listeners have sent in by clicking here

The story so far...

The now repaired town clock in Camborne

In week one, James Churchfield and Pam Spriggs called in on Camborne to see for themselves the old workings of the stopped clock in the Bassett building. The good news is, a week later, the repairs were done and on 12th October 2009 the clock started ticking again.

James also heard from the man whose Cumbria-based company maintains many of Cornwall's public clocks and how a simple inspection could lead to many stopped clocks being started again for relatively little cost.

BBC Radio Cornwall's Debbie McCrory also reported from Lostwithiel and discovered the stopped clock on St Bartholomew's Church should be working again by November 2009.

In week two, we heard why the church clock on St Mary's on the Isles of Scilly has no hands and heard how £12,000 has already been raised to restore Launceston's so called 'Little Ben' church clock at St Stephen's church which is marking its 750th anniversary.

The clock on the St Stephen by Launceston church has also stopped

We've also discovered why the clock on the harbour car park public toilets in Padstow has been running 4 hours slow for as long as anyone can remember.

The team also heard why the clock on Nanpean's Millennium monument has disappeared and how the number of trained clock repairers has fallen from 50,000 to just 400 across the whole of the UK.

Get involved

The campaign in its original form came to a close as we all put the clocks back to mark the end of British summertime, however as the year goes on James and the team will be re-visiting those clocks that have been reported stopped to see what has become of Cornwall's timeless timepieces.

Remember we also need photos of some of these stopped clocks. You can email them to BBC Cornwall by clicking here