HARTING.
THE CHURCH CLOCK.—To the Editor of the West Sussex Gazette,—Sir, —I regret to say that the very venerable clock of our ancient church is in such a state as to require a frequent alteration of as much as twenty minutes or half an hour at a time. Before the railroad ran through our parish, even half an hour was no great object; but now, to keep pace with old Time, and travelling by steam, a populous village like Harting, with a railway running close to its doors, ought to possess a clock superior to our old-fashioned one-hand clock, which may or may not be correct to a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and which has been deceiving the inhabitants of Harting for a long time. I am confident that a subscription set on foot, either for the supply of a better clock or in some other way to remedy the existing evil, would be met with a cheerful and ready response by all, and the result would be a vast improvement and a lasting benefit.— TEMPUS.
West Sussex Gazette — Thursday 22 December 1864
HARTING
THE CHURCH CLOCK,—To the Editor of the West Sussex Gazette,— Sir,—‟If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle?” is a question asked many hundreds of years ago by an inspired writer, and is a question, too, which has often occurred to my mind of late, as I have been misled by listening to the uncertain sound of time given by our church clock. It is a rule with the people of Harting, especially the labouring class to regulate their clocks and watches for the week by the church bell, which is supposed to ring precisely at eight o’clock on Sunday mornings, and, as recently as last Sunday week, I with many others put my timepiece with the church clock as the ringing of the bell and striking of the clock announced the hour of eight; but you may imagine my surprise at six o’clock in the evening of the same day to find that the church clock had been altered in that short space of time about half an hour. Although I cordially agree with your correspondent ‟Tempus,” that something should be done to remedy what he terms an existing evil, I cannot altogether agree with him as to the supply of another clock. It may be practicable to add another hand, and put a new face to our old friend, which has served us so many, many years. This would enable us to see the time, a privilege we have not enjoyed for a long while, and would also be attended with small expense. Perhaps those better acquainted with mechanism od clocks will inform us if the above suggestion is practicable. At any rate, I sincerely hope that the parish authorities will deem it their duty, either at once to remedy the want at present so deeply felt of a chronometer for the people of Harting which can be depended on, or do away entirely with that which in its present state only misleads and deceives.—PUNCTUALITY.