Church clock chimes again

Parishioners at Christ Church in Oldbury launched a campaign in an attempt to get the clock working again and restore the chime.

It had been over a decade since shoppers in the town had heard the bells in the clock tower.

Canon John Barnett, parish priest at Christ Church, said today: "We have managed to raise enough money to get one of the bells chiming and the clock turning.

"It is wonderful to see it working again and I hope people in Oldbury will be as pleased as we are. There is still a lot of work to do."

The church invited people to sponsor minutes on the clock in December.

They also unveiled plans to get the bells of the clock chiming their hourly signal again. The church, often described as Oldbury's Cathedral, had been without a working clock for more than a decade.

Parishioners wrote to the church asking why the clock had not worked for so long and if it could be repaired. The church then set about raising over £3,000 to fund the project. It included fitting a new motor and installing a new striker for the tenor bell.

A specialist firm won the contract to carry out the work, which was completed last week, and the chimes are now once again ringing out across the town centre.

The chime will be turned off at night to minimise disruption for neighbours living near the church, in Birmingham Street.

The church has raised £2,000 of the £3,000 it needs to complete the project. It now wants to raise the rest of the money to get the rest of the bells chiming.