Page 5 - FEB2025

February 2025 NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM Page 5
By DoNNa RhoDes
BRISTOL – Some tasks en- dure the test of time. Among those is the task of keeping a town’s clock ticking and the hourly bells ringing, and that is exactly what the Patten family in Bristol has been doing for just over four de- cades.
Last Sunday, Peter and Deb- bie Patten of Bristol set out once more on their mission to wind the town clock for the first time this year. The antique timepiece, built in 1927, sits high in the bell tower of the Bristol United Church of Christ on South Main Street.
Reaching the workings of the clock, situated in the tower more than three stories above the street, can be daunting for a newcomer. It begins with a stroll through the building and up a carpeted flight of stairs to the balcony overlook- ing the beautiful sanctuary. From there, you ascend a pull-down ladder, duck under old timbers, cautiously step over creaky boards, and climb a final set of steep, treacherous-looking stairs before reaching the clock’s mechanics.
To the Pattens, it is an old hat. Peter’s family has been doing this for 44 years, and they all know when to duck, which beam to hold onto, and when to tread cautiously before reaching the top.
The clock and all its mechan- ical workings were built by E. Howard &Co. from Boston, Mas- sachusetts, in 1827 and installed in 1836. The digits 866 on its base presumably show how many clocks the company had built at that time. In those early years, town clocks were important in let- ting residents know the time since there were no electric clocks and
wind-up watches were few and far between.
What seems like a somewhat simple piece of machinery, com- piled basically of cables and gears and brass dials to set the time, re- quires that it be wound each week to keep the time accurate and the bells ringing at the top of each hour.
On January 24, 1977, Peter’s brother Greg Patten first took over the job of winding the clock each week. Three years later, the special Winding Crank was passed on to his brother Mark who per- formed the task until handing it off to their younger brother Peter in 1984. After four years, the job was taken over by Scott Hackett until he stepped down and passed it back over to another Patten- their dad, Bob.
Besides his duties with the Bris- tol Fire Department, Bob Patten made his way up the many steps each week for nearly ten years. He even set his own alarm clock to climb the tower before 2 a.m. twice a year when clocks were set forward or backward an hour. He wanted to be certain it had the correct time when residents awoke the next morning.
As his footing and his health declined, however, Peter and his wife Debbie took the duties of “Keeper of the Clock” back in 2020.
Visiting the lofty clock tower last week was actually like a true step back in time. The rough wooden walls were filled with the scrawls of each clockkeeper’s names and dates of service. Those who have been up there in the past also add their name on the wall; some date all the way to 1913. Peter pointed out a memorable
Debbie and Peter Patten are the people who keep Bristol’s bell ringing each time the clock in the tower above Bristol United Church of Christ reaches the top of the hour. Photos by Donna Rhodes
him he’s done.
As they take turns using the
heavy metal winding crank, they have to keep an eye on the time, however. At the top of each hour, mechanisms begin to spin, and they have to step out of the way as the bell starts to ring. Since the bell is just a few feet above the me- chanical room, covering your ears is advised. Once the ringing stops, Peter adjusts the minutes' mecha- nism to the correct time, and they head back down the maze of nar- row steps and low beams.
Besides the hourly ringing, people will hear the bell loud and clear on Sunday mornings when church services are ready to begin. Peter pointed out a stout rope that is pulled for the call to worship, hanging down through the floors from the bell tower above.
One other piece of history attached to the bell is that in the earlier days of Bristol, it was also used to notify the fire department of any emergency in the town. Today, that part of the apparatus is still intact but has been replaced by radio dispatchers from Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid.
Today, however, when the bell tones out at the top of the hour, residents can be assured that there is no emergency. It is now simply a nostalgic reminder that the tra- dition of winding the clock goes on, and they can thank the Patten family and others before them for keeping Bristol’s bell still ringing 189 years after it came to town.
Enduring the Test of Time: The Bristol ClockCommunity
note from Dec. 6, 1986, when the cables that wind the clock had to be replaced.
“I was winding the clock, and all of a sudden, the cable broke. It dropped the weight, and the cable went through a wall of the chute it runs through down below,” he recalled.
There were no bells ringing in Bristol for a short while, but thank- fully, it was repaired once they found someone who knew how to fix it. He memorialized his reason for being there on the wall as well.
For the fifth year in a row now, Peter and his wife have been wind- ing the clock every Sunday. Peter winds the cable that controls the hours, and Debbie then winds the
The clock in the bell tower above the Bristol United Church of Christ dates back to 1836 and has kept ticking the time away thanks to the people who have wound it up each week for 189 years.
cable for the minutes. Winding the hours' gear is the toughest of the chores. The cables pull up weights for the clock, and due to the ad- ditional hammer mechanism that rings the bell, the weight is approx- imately 2,000 lbs. Debbie joked that that is why she leaves that job for her husband. The weight for the minutes' gear is a “mere” 500 lbs. and much more to her liking. Each week, she counts up to 100 cranks before a white stripe on the cable appears to let her know the weight has reached the top. Peter, however, said he’s never bothered to count how many times he has to wind the cable; he just keeps going until the white paint shows
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