Time stops for no man, and that is certainly the case for the man who looks after Edinburgh’s historic clocks.
For centuries the timepieces on some of the city’s most famous buildings have been wound each week by hand, but that practice looks like falling victim to the modern concerns of budget constraints and the fear of health and safety regulations.
Automatic mechanisms which can be controlled from a laptop are to be introduced on seven clocks under city council plans which they say will save money and reduce risks to workers.
Despite spending more than 30 years behind the faces of the clocks, Alan Wilson says the time is right to introduce the new technology.
Mr Wilson, of James Ritchie & Son, which is contracted to wind, re-set, repair and clean public clocks throughout Edinburgh, said automatic conversion was the “modern way forward”.
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He added: “I started working for James Ritchie & Son as an accountant 30 years ago. My boss used to visit the clocks then and do the turning. If it was a nice afternoon, he’d invite me to go with him and I always got home a couple of hours later but I loved going.
A fear of heights is not something that goes with the job, according to Mr Wilson, 63, from Fife. He said: “Going up to the clock chamber is something you become accustomed to. At first I faced it with trepidation but now I have no problem clambering up scaffolding and steep steps to the clock.”
Electrical-mechanical “control boxes” are to be attached to each clock, allowing specialists to monitor, adjust and wind devices automatically, rather than it being done manually each week.
Although initial conversion is set to cost the city about £25,000, it is hoped the move will eventually save £8,000 in annual running expenses.
Clocks to see changes are at the Canongate Tolbooth, the Tron Kirk on the High Street, the Highland Tolbooth Church on the Lawnmarket, St Giles’ Cathedral, South Leith Parish Church, Broughton St Mary’s Parish Church and St Stephen’s Church in St Vincent Street.
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George Robinson, secretary of the One O’Clock Gun Association, said: “Things are changing so fast now, but the big thing is that you’ve got to maintain those clocks. You’ve got to go along with new technologies. The automatic system will get better and better as time goes on.”