Sign of the chimes as Little John gets facelift

HISTORIC COUNCIL HOUSE BELL FALLS SILENT FOR 10-WEEK REPAIRS

- By JOSEPH LOCKER Local Democracy Reporter

THE historic Little John bell at the top of Nottingham Council House has fallen silent for two months while the near 100-year-old clock is serviced to fix "chiming issues".

A senior Nottingham councillor says he hopes the rest of the Council House, in Old Market Square, could be given a spruce-up in time for its centenary by the end of the decade.

At noon on Tuesday, the bells in the building's 200ft domed roof chimed for the last time ahead of the 10-week restoration project.

Work on the clock and its gearbox will be the most time-consuming element of the project, but the Little John bell and its smaller siblings will be serviced too while out of action.

The bells were last silenced during the Second World War. It is estimated that Little John could have chimed up to 3.8 million times since 1928. The clock itself has recorded 51 million minutes going by.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service was taken up the building's narrow, spiral staircase and into the dome to find out more about the project.

Wayne Francis is the director of Clockwise Restorations in Lin-colnshire, which has been looking after the clock for eight years.