Clocking Up A Towering Success
Simon Groom starts the clock, accompanied by Amy Louise White (second from right) and fellow Chellaston School pupils. Amy won First Prize in last year's Incredible Clock competition.
Environmental improvement of our iconic towers was a priority for the University.
”University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Coyne.
The University's new £25,000 clock.
It was almost enough to win us a Blue Peter badge.
When former presenter on the children's TV programme, Simon Groom, visited the University's Kedleston Road site on June 11 to start up our new £25,000 clock he was greeted by it chiming the Blue Peter theme tune.
The surprise was prepared by Smith of Derby, who designed and created the new clock on the North Tower. The timepiece was the finishing touch for the £13.5m, two-year project to refenestrate the three 1960s-built towers at Kedleston Road.
During his visit the TV presenter also unveiled a plaque at the base of the South Tower, to mark the major refurbishment project, having previously made a speech that - in true Blue Peter style - he joked that he'd "made earlier".
Among those attending the June 11 opening event were University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Coyne, Pro Chancellor and Chair of Governing Council Dianne Jeffrey; Governing Council members, senior University staff, and representatives of Smith of Derby and tower scheme contractors OPL.
Young Designers
Children from Chellaston School, whose ideas were among those which contributed to the clock's final design, were also invited. More than 500 Derbyshire schoolchildren took part in an 'Incredible Clock' design competition last year.
The final clock design has a semi-circular face and only one sweep hand, to indicate both the hour and the minutes past.
The 4.2 metre long metal frame has a 0 at the bottom and 12 at the top of it, with hour markings in-between. The single hand will move along this length over each 12 hour period, instantly sweeping back to 0 to begin again once it reaches 12noon and midnight.
Known as a 'fly-back' movement, it is thought the University's may be the largest clock movement of this type on any building in the world.
Its computer controlled hourly chimes will only operate between 9am and 9pm to avoid inconvenience to nearby residents.
Professor Coyne said: "Environmental improvement of our iconic towers was a priority for the University, as it sought to face the future.
"Commissioning Smith of Derby, clockmakers of distinction for over 150 years, provided a perfect link with our city's past. It also provides a link with our Buxton Campus, where the entrance to the Dome is dominated by a Smith tower clock from the 19th century."
Environmental Achievement
The work on the towers:
- has made them up to 300% better at retaining their own heat energy, due to better insulation;
- will cut carbon emissions by reducing energy wastage;
- is expected to reduce the gas and electric bills for the North, East and South Towers by around £150,000 a year.
As previously reported in Connected the South Tower has also been fitted with 200 square metres of photovoltaic (solar) panels and nine wind turbines, capable of generating a combined 28,807 kilowatt hours (kWh) of 'green' electricity for University use. A further, 65 foot tall wind turbine, will be built in the Kedleston Road site's driveway shortly.
