Caen Clock - 1907

The Town Hall contains many heirlooms of the community in the keeping of the council; the history of some of them has become obscure. One such item is the Caen clock. Luckily its history was recorded in a copy of the High Peak Reporter 9-5-52:

'Keeping perfect time in New Mills Town Hall is a Caen stone clock - and, if it could speak as merrily as it ticks it would tell a story of one man's skill and patience. About 45 years ago Mr Horace Arden loved to make things and himself a stone mason enjoyed modelling in stone at the end of a days work. Deciding to make an ornamental clock, he went to Mr W. Wells, then a New Mills jeweller from whom he got a catalogue. From Caen, a French city which is world famous for its white stone - of which several English cathedrals are built- he arranged for a block of stone to be shipped to him. He bought a French movement clock encased in brass from Mr Wells. Then using one of the catalogue models as the basis of his own handiwork he began work.

With a “cut throat' razor and a pen knife as his only tools and infinite patience and skill. Mr Arden spent night after night working on the chunk of stone in the yard behind his Jodrell Street home. Altogether he spent 114 hours with razor and knife before the 2ft wide and 2ft high model was finished.

Generally it followed the pattern shown in the catalogue, except for the dome which Mr Arden carved after the style of St Paul's cathedral and an ornamental strip at the front which he copied from a design on the fireside fender at his mother's home. Above the clock face he cut out his initials in the form of a monogram. The clock strikes once at the hour and the half-hour, and the ornamental design is a fine example of a local man's craftsmanship in stone.

Mr Arden died some years ago his widow presented the clock to the New Mills Council.