I hope you didn't forget to change the clocks on Saturday night!
In the UK the clocks went forward 1 hour at 1am on 31st March, moving from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time!
In Wimborne Minster there is an astronomical clock (shown above) with the sun and moon orbiting the earth, which dates back to the year 1320. It was built by a monk named Peter Lightfoot at Glastonbury in Somerset.
The sun points to the time of day (there is no minute hand), and the gold/black orb represents the moon and shows the phases of the moon. When there is a full moon, it will be completely golden (like today!) and when there is an eclipse it will be completely black. The intermediate phases such as half-moon or a three- quarters moon, will be correspondingly shown as half black and half gold or three-quarters gold and a quarter black etc.
The casing on the wall holds the cogs, which move the sun and moon around the face of the clock, but the actual works are in the belfry.
Attached to the clock is a full size Grenadier, called the Quarterjack (shown below), which strikes the quarter hours. This figure is on the north wall outside the Minster. The original figure was that of a monk, but this was replaced during the Napoleonic War.
I hope you didn't forget to change the clocks on Saturday night!
In the UK the clocks went forward 1 hour at 1am on 31st March, moving from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time!
In Wimborne Minster there is an astronomical clock (shown above) with the sun and moon orbiting the earth, which dates back to the year 1320. It was built by a monk named Peter Lightfoot at Glastonbury in Somerset.
The sun points to the time of day (there is no minute hand), and the gold/black orb represents the moon and shows the phases of the moon. When there is a full moon, it will be completely golden (like today!) and when there is an eclipse it will be completely black. The intermediate phases such as half-moon or a three- quarters moon, will be correspondingly shown as half black and half gold or three-quarters gold and a quarter black etc.
The casing on the wall holds the cogs, which move the sun and moon around the face of the clock, but the actual works are in the belfry.
Attached to the clock is a full size Grenadier, called the Quarterjack (shown below), which strikes the quarter hours. This figure is on the north wall outside the Minster. The original figure was that of a monk, but this was replaced during the Napoleonic War.