TIME will wind on once again in Witney when the town’s oldest clock gets a makeover from a master clockmaker.

The historic Witney Blanket Hall timepiece, which only has an hour hand, has long been a curiosity in the town, especially because the hand has not moved “for as long as anybody can remember” according to Steven Fletcher.

Mr Fletcher who runs the Clock Workshop in Langdale Court, Witney, has been given the task of climbing up on the roof of the hall to remove and fix the clock, which dates from 1721.

Mr Fletcher has been commissioned by Richard Martin, who is renovating the hall to reopen it as a textiles shop and museum.

The clock is accompanied by a large bell on top of the hall which used to chime every hour.

Mr Fletcher said: “It’s the clock that I always wanted to fix. It’s been stopped for donkey’s years. They made the wind into an electric mechanism in the 1970s and it didn’t work all that well so we’re taking all the electrical work out and turning it into a hand-wound clock. It will be great to see it up and running again.”

He added: “Everyone in Witney knows it as the one-handed clock.

“It would have been one-handed back when it was made because it wasn’t so important to know the minutes.”

No-one knows who made the clock but it was commissioned by the Witney Company of Blanket Weavers, which founded the hall as a meeting place for their trade in 1722.

It was at first only a striking clock with a bell under a cover on the roof – which is still in place – but had no clock face.

The face was added to the front of the building later.

Mr Fletcher said: “We will have to take the clock to pieces, take out the bearings and work them on our lathes and polish them, and will have to replace the bushes. We will them have to reassemble it all.”

“There are fewer and fewer people doing this now but I’m lucky enough to be a third generation clock maker.”

Mr Martin, who has been renovating the halls been renovating it for the past year, said: “Back in the 1700s when the Blanket Hall was built clocks were quite rare. They were probably only two in Witney, one on St Mary’s Church and one on the Blanket Hall, so it would have been quite prestigious.

“There’s something really special about bringing somewhere that has been around for 300 years back into public view.”