Weather vanes, etc.
There are various instruments in Cambridge, such as weather vanes, clocks, etc on Cambridge colleges, boat houses, churches, etc. I have restricted myself to what can be seen from public paths. Some colleges have sun dials only visible from inside the college. Queens College has a splendid sundial, so I have made an exception for that.
Great St Marys on Kings Parade has an old clock dated 1679. The church clock strikes the 'Cambridge Quarters', which were copied for the 'Westminster chimes' of Big Ben. It also has 3D maps in front, see below.
This is the Corpus Clock, a fully functioning mechanical clock that shows the time without using hands. A part of mechanical clocks which converts pendulum motion into rotational motion is called a grasshopper escapement. In this clock, it really looks like a grasshopper. It is called the Chronophage or "time eater". It moves backwards and forwards on the cogs of the wheels. Its eyes blink at random. Every minute, its mouth opens, showing needle-like teeth. Then it shuts, eating the minute.
There are three circles of dots which show the hour, minute and second. The clock seems to hesitate from time to time, so the clock is accurate every five minutes rather than all the time. Under the clock is carved a quotation from 1 John 2:17 "Mundus transit et concupiscentia eius" or "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof." The first word looks like MUDUS rather than MUNDUS, but there is a line over the first U. This is a scribal mark showing that the word has been abbreviated. Click here for more on the clock and its maker.
The following is taken from Secrets of the Corpus Clock from the Corpus Christi college website:
"The Custodian of the Corpus Clock, Dr Ewan St. John Smith, shares some little-known facts about the famous Chronophage.
The Clock sits on what used to be the entrance to a Natwest Bank, a building built in 1866 (designed by architect Horace Francis) that originally housed the London County Bank. Natwest's lease ended in 2005 & it was decided that better student library provision was needed at College. The then library was sited under the Parker Library. Moving the Library out of that location would also lead to better facilities for students and researchers to access the Parker as well. The old Natwest entrance couldn't just be bricked up due to planning restriction. What to do? Enter inventor & Corpus alumnus Dr John C Taylor OBE, inventor of the bimetallic thermostat control present in electric kettles and much more! John is also an horologist. He designed the Corpus Chronophage Clock, which was then built by the Engineering firm Huxley Bertram. He gifted the clock to the College, and was the major benefactor to the new undergraduate library which takes his name.
But this is no ordinary clock.
Atop the wheel sits the Chronophage (time eater). The mouth opens at 30 seconds past each minute, snapping shut when the minute is over. It is an example of the grasshopper escapement mechanism invented in the 1700s by John Harrison, who also invented the marine chronometer that enabled sailors to determine longitude. An escapement is a mechanical linkage that checks and releases a clock's gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The Corpus clock is believed to be the largest grasshopper escapement of any clock in the world. The escapement wheel is made from a single sheet of steel, plated in gold, created by a series of explosions in a vacuum. The radiating ripples that this creates allude to the Big Bang. When the hour is struck, there is no chiming of bells, but rather the rustling of chains and the sound of a hammer striking a wooden coffin - perhaps a little offputting for those studying in the library behind the clock! The clock has no hands or digital numbers; instead vernier slits are cut into the face. Three blue LED wheels (2,736 LEDs) are arranged behind the slits so that when the escape wheel moves, lights appear to dart in concentric circles and pause at the correct hour, minute and second. So although the lights give the illusion of flashing in sequence, they are actually exposed mechanically. However, this clock plays tricks: our perception of time is always altered by what is going on around us, and the clock's trickery adds to that.
The clock has 50 tricks, a special set is reserved for four days: John Harrison's birthday (25 March), John Taylor's birthday (25 November), New Year's Day and Corpus Christi Day (Thursday after Trinity Sunday). When playing these tricks, the clock gets a little out of time, but have no fear, it can run 10 percent fast, enabling a rapid realignment. This ability also allows the clock to cope with daylight savings time changes. The pendulum has an inscription. Joh = Johannes = John; Sarto = Taylor; Monan = Monanensis = Isle of Man; Inv. = Invenit = to create; MMVIII = 2008. John Taylor from the Isle of Man made this in 2008. The pendulum points to are ten peaks on the rhodium dish at the bottom when playing certain tricks, a further homage to John Harrison and the accuracy achieved with his clocks centuries ago!
And of course, like all good clocks, there is a key, but this one is purely ceremonial. When spun, the key tells you to which clock it belongs. The top left is an image of the bimetallic thermostat for the kettle.
This clock and carving is on the wall of a shop in Petty Cury. It used to be H. Samuels (jewellers, including clocks and watches). The design on the wall is an abstract of a clock mechanism carved into the brick by hand. The design and the carving were carried out by the David Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge in the 1970s. At that time the workshop members were David Kindersley, Kevin Cribb, David Parsley, and Mark Bury. The faces of the clock were done at Hibbitts stone masons in Cambridge by sand blasting and all recessed work was then gilded at the David Kindersley Workshop. The gilding seems to have worn off, and I don't think the clock works any more!
Lloyd's Bank in Sidney Street (end of Petty Cury) is listed grade II*. It was built as Fosters bank, in 1891, in a Dutch Renaissance style. It has a splendid clock, which does work.
This clock is inside Trinity Great Court, and unfortunately you can't see it properly from the public viewing point (you can just see the edge). Trinity charges the casual visitor, and sometimes does not allow entrance at all.
Wordsworth went to St Johns college, and in his poem Prelude, he complains about this clock!
Near me hung Trinity's loquacious clock,
Who never let the quarters, night or day,
Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice.
It's certainly true that the clock strikes the hours twice. This is a long peal, and led to the tradition of the "Geat Court Run" as shown in the film "Chariots of Fire". The runners start running when the clock starts striking twelve, and they must run all around the court before it stops striking. Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram attempted the feat in a charity race on 29 October 1988. Coe was fastest. The clock on that day took 44.4 seconds and video confirms that Coe was approximately 12 metres short of his finish line when the final stroke occurred. Contrary to the depiction in Chariots of Fire, Harold Abrahams never attempted the Run.
This clock is on the side of the Dales Brewery site (now various businesses such as antique shops and a coffee shop) in Gwydir St. I suspect that it isn't working. Click here for more about Dales Brewery.
The Gate of Honour, in Gonville and Caius college, in Senate House Passage, has several sun dials on top.
On the lawn within the Downing Site. From sundial walk: "The rather battered sundial near the Downing Street entrance to the site is actually a collection of 17 dials all cut into a single block of stone. The sundial was presented by Professor Sir William Ridgeway (a famous archaeologist and classical scholar) and his wife Lucy in 1913. Their daughter, also named Lucy, married the son of John Venn (of diagrams fame). Sir William and (daughter) Lucy later set up the University's Ridgeway-Venn Travel Fund. According to University Ordinances, the first call on this Fund is for the maintenance of this sundial."
St Botolph's church, in Trumpington Street, has sun dials on its tower.
This dial is on the wall of Foundress Court, Pembroke, designed by Eric Parry Architects and built in 1997. It won a commendation from the British Sundial Society. This view is from outside the college, on Tennis Court Road.The helpful graph lower right shows that in February sundials are about 15 mins slow of GMT. The photo was taken at 14:31; so the adjusted time is correct within the limited accuracy with which the dial can be read. The shadow of the ball indicates the season, falling on the upper or lower curves at the solstices, and the straight (but slanting) centre line at the equinoxes.
Newnham Walk is a road leading off Ridley Hall Road, off Sidwick Avenue. It leads to a back gate of Newnham. There is this sundial on a wall. It is a memorial to Margaret Stanier, scientist. She was interested in sundials, and bell ringing (hence the little bell in the gnomon). The sundial looks a little odd. I took this photo at 2pm, and the line is on the IX line (9). This is the fraction of the daylight period that has elapsed since sunrise. On this sundial, the unit of time used is one-twelfth of the period from sunrise to sunset. Such units are termed "hours", but they are clearly longer in summer than in winter so they are known as unequal-hours. Click here for an explanation.
This sundial is within Queens College. You have to pay to enter, so this is an exception to my "public view only" rule. Click here for a history of the dial, and click here for how to read it. Unfortunately, part of its history is that it's being repaired at the moment. I've been given this explanation of the picture above: "This is a picture of the current stage of calibration of the flatness (or otherwise) of the new stone backing to a future restored sundial. It is essentially large-scale graph paper. On the graph paper are drawn the computed lines taken by the shadow of a hypothetical sun on the dates of the zodiac changes (winter solstice at the top), if the stone backing were completely flat (which in reality it is not quite). The actual shadow of the sun cast by the ball is being monitored continuously by a camera on the opposite wall, and recorded, which we have been doing for many months. When we have enough data on the divergence between the real sun's shadow on the uneven surface, and the computed lines, then we will be able to paint a sundial image on which the lines have been pre-compensated for the unevenness of the surface on which they are drawn. You can expect to see things start to change towards a restored painted dial sometime after the next Spring Equinox, and before the Summer Solstice."
How to make your own weather vane!
Hobb's Pavilion, on Parkers Piece, used to be changing rooms for cricketeers. It is now a restaurant.
In the Downing Site, above the Sedgwick Museum, there is a weather vane with an ichthyosaur on it!
Along the front of the Downing Site, there are several weather vanes, presumably to see if the wind is in the same direction. Apparently not...
St Peters is on Castle Street. At the top of the spire is a weathervane with the initials A.P. This was originally at Peterhouse. A.P. are the initials of Andrew Perne, Master 1554-89 and Dean of Ely 1557-89. He was known a 'the weathercock dean' because he carefully cultivated the support of whichever religious or political faction was in power at the time, switching from traditional Catholicism to extreme Puritanism and then to moderate Protestantism. His initials 'AP' occasioned the wags of the time to say that they stood for 'A Protestant, A Puritan or A Papist'. Supporters could stress that Perne's ability to cultivate the dominant political party ensured that Cambridge University survived the Tudor period with increased wealth and influence. In 1770 the weathervane on the college's Perne Library was blown down in a storm, and the weathervane eventually was installed here.
St Clements is on Bridge Street. The tower, designed by Charles Humfrey, is of cement render and initially had a spire; it was added in 1821-2, after a bequest by William Cole. Pevsner describes the tower as "somewhat silly". The spire was removed from the tower in 1928, so obviously they had to put the weather vane on a pole.
There are a couple of weather vanes on Kings College hall, opposite the chapel. They feature various Tudor and royal symbols such as the portculis, the Tudor rose and the trefoil.
Honey Hill is behind St Peters. "Honey" means muddy. The locals like to call it Pooh Corner, because Winnie the Pooh liked honey. This weather-vane is near by, in Haymarket Hill.
This weather vane is on St Benet, in Benet Street.
This building is behind the Guildhall. The weather vane is a seahorse, from the city's coat of arms.
This building is on the corner of Bridge Street and Jesus Lane. The weather vane has a cooper making a barrel. It is near the former Hoop Inn (see Shops and Businesses). It was put there between 2008 and 2012.
The former Laurie and McConnal department store in Fitzroy Streethas a bandstand on top with weather vane, saying "L M & Co". The decorated top window has the date 1903.
This weather vane is on a building in Abbey Road, close to the Elizabeth Way roundabout. I think it represents doing some laundry.
This weather vane is on Newnham College, and can be seen from Newnham Walk. 1893 is the date of this particular building (the Pfeiffer Building).
The Cambridge boat houses, for university, college and town boats, are along the north bank of the Cam, mostly facing Midsummer Common. There seems to be a tradition about weather vanes and clock towers - here are some variants:
From this website: "Another club founded in 1827, Jesus College, built this boathouse in 1932 to replace a Victorian structure that had been destroyed by fire. The rebuild boasted both a weather vane and a clock tower and this may have given rise to the myth that displaying the former means that a college has gone Head of the River for five consecutive years and having the latter means that it has had ten years consecutive Headships (or perhaps five Lents and five Mays)."
From this website: "The new Boathouse, built on and slightly beyond the footprint of the original building, is built of red brick with its roof clad in pre-patinated copper. It is topped with a clock tower - permitted only to colleges that have been Head of the River for five years, according to Cambridge folklore - together with a weathervane and flagpole."
From this website: "One former myth is the idea that the boathouses of Cambridge colleges are only permitted to build a clock tower if the college has been Head of the River for five years – that is to say that they have come first in the top division in the rowing races between the colleges, which are known as bumps. A variation on this is that they have to do it 10 years in a row, but that isn't a feat that any college has managed since the 19th century. The last time was In 1875 to 1886 when Headship was held by Jesus College, who added a clock tower to their boathouse not long after - perhaps sparking the myth. When Gonville and Caius was Head of the River for the fifth consecutive year, they opened a new boathouse the year after, and their own reporting noted their five-year streak. So it may be that the rule about the building of clock towers has transferred from myth into observed tradition."
(One interpretation is that the mythical qualification is 10 SEASONS as Head - which was 10 years when Jesus did it, but only 5 years since 1887 when Lents became a thing. And of course it doesn't refer to the '99 boat club, which is a town club.)
Trinity Hall:
Jesus:
Cambridge '99: (The second weather vane seems to have lost its top!)
Gonville and Caius:
Lady Margaret (boat club of St Johns): plus finial
This barometer is set into the doorway, on the right-hand side, of 9 Kings Parade. Apparently scientific instruments used to be made here, so this was advertising.
This Compass is positioned at the meeting of Fitzroy Street and Burleigh Street, in front of the Grafton Centre. The letters N,W,S,E are set into the ground representing the points of the compass. Inside there are small lights (they come on at night, or at least some of them do), perhaps representing stars? I don't know who did it, its proper title, or what it represents. Of course, you can use any weather vane as a compass if you want.
Great St Marys on Kings Parade has two 3D maps in front. There are inscriptions round the edge of one of them for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, and the octocentenary of the City of Cambridge (its charter) in 2001. The maps are made of bronze by Vernon McElroy the same person who made the one on Queens Green (see below).
© Jo Edkins 2024 - Return to Walks index