In 1927 the church became a cathedral, and Smith of Derby were appointed to replace the clock mechanism. A new carillon was commissioned and installed in 1931. It plays a tune once every three hours on the oldest ring of 10 bells in the world, the largest weighing in at 965kg and nearly 500 years old.
Today, the clock is still in the care of Smith of Derby. As with many church dials which are painted directly on to the stone surface, these can only be restored in-situ. Before the days of computer aided design, the markings were stored by Smith’s as individual tracings.
Now, the outlines are retained on file as computerplots, enabling accurate recall of their unique patterns as well as providing a valuable (and safely backed-up) archive.
View Derby Cathedral Clock Case Study