Time will soon be marching on (From Cotswold Journal)

Time will soon be marching on

1:00pm Saturday 9th February 2013 in News

A 140-YEAR-old clock which has been silent in a Cotswold village for three years will soon chime again.

Repair work on the main mechanism of the clock on the Victorian church in Paxford, the hands of which have been stuck firmly at 9.40 for more than a year, is almost complete and it is expected to be up and running again in the spring.

Villagers set up the Paxford Village Clock Appeal last September to raise the £1,500 cost of repairing it, and since then the money has come in thick and fast.

The committee had such a good response that it raised more than double what it had hoped for in just a space of a few weeks thanks to the fund-raising efforts of generous villagers.

Appeal committee chairman Peter Bugge said the extra money would be spent on future maintenance of the clock.

“We’ve had a very good response,” he said. “The Churchill Arms’ [pub] quiz night donated the profits.

“The staff donated their tips from the evening, which was well above and beyond the call of duty.

“When you walk around the village you see the clock.

“Everybody’s seen it and they are aware of it. It’s very much part of the village.”

Meanwhile elsewhere in Paxford, plans to transform a disused red telephone box into a miniature library are moving forward.

Committee members are planning to give the phone box a new lick of paint and install some shelving, after residents said it needed a tidy up after being empty for at least four years.

Mike Sessarego, village hall committee member, said: “Things are happening. In terms of stock we thought we would wait until the spring. The proof of the pudding will be how many people use it.