# Wells Cathedral Clock > Peter Lightfoot (traditional attribution, disputed) - Traditional and widely repeated: 1392. Securely attested only that a clock existed at Wells by 1392-1394 (a keeper's payment of 1392-1393; Chapter Roll references from 1394); the wider bracket of c.1386-1392 rests on comparison with the independently dated Salisbury Cathedral clock and on Bishop Ralph Erghum's move from Salisbury to Wells in 1388, not on a surviving Wells building record. > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/peter-lightfoot/wells-cathedral-clock/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-27 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Peter Lightfoot (traditional attribution, disputed) - **Date:** Traditional and widely repeated: 1392. Securely attested only that a clock existed at Wells by 1392-1394 (a keeper's payment of 1392-1393; Chapter Roll references from 1394); the wider bracket of c.1386-1392 rests on comparison with the independently dated Salisbury Cathedral clock and on Bishop Ralph Erghum's move from Salisbury to Wells in 1388, not on a surviving Wells building record. - **Medium:** Iron-framed, weight-driven turret clock movement (the medieval mechanism, Science Museum, London); painted and gilded wood, iron and stone dial and automata figures at Wells Cathedral, driven since 1884 by a separate cast-iron and steel Victorian movement. - **Dimensions:** Medieval movement (Science Museum, object 1884-77 Pt1): approx. 2400 x 4000 x 2200 mm, approx. 2000 kg. A related components entry in the same online catalogue gives approx. 4330 x 2500 mm footprint and approx. 3400 kg; the discrepancy between the two catalogue records is not resolved in the sources consulted. Dial and automata at Wells: in situ in the north transept; no independent dimensions were found published in the sources consulted for this record. - **Object type:** Clocks and instruments - **Period:** English, late 14th century (the medieval movement); the north transept exterior dial is a separate later addition, variously dated 14th-15th century in general accounts and about 1475 in one specialist account; the movement now driving both dials and the automata at Wells is Victorian, installed 1884. - **Current location:** Dial, automata and the current (1884) movement: Wells Cathedral, north transept, Somerset, England, in situ. The original medieval movement: Science Museum, London (Science Museum Group), on loan from the Dean and Chapter of Wells Cathedral. - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary The name Wells Cathedral clock is usually used for two different surviving objects. One is the painted astronomical dial and its automata, the jousting knights and the quarter-jack figure called Jack Blandifer, which have stood in the north transept of Wells Cathedral since around 1390 and have been driven since 1884 by a Victorian replacement movement. The other is the actual medieval mechanism those figures were originally built to run from, removed from the cathedral and now on permanent display, still working, at the Science Museum in London, on loan from the Dean and Chapter.The clock's traditional attribution to Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury Abbey, rests on a 16th century antiquarian's account of a different clock at Glastonbury itself, and a once-popular legend that the Glastonbury clock was physically moved to Wells at the Dissolution is directly contradicted by Wells's own Chapter Rolls, which record a clock there from 1394, well before 1539. The clock's construction date, usually given flatly as 1392, is secured only by a keeper's payment of 1392-1393 and by comparison with the independently dated clock at Salisbury Cathedral, itself a genuinely contested date among specialists.What is not contested is the ambition of the thing itself: a geocentric model of the universe, gilded Sun and painted Moon turning around a fixed Earth, four winds in the corners, knights jousting every quarter hour and a small seated man striking the bells with his own heels, built for a cathedral in Somerset six centuries ago and, in two different buildings 200 kilometres apart, still running. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1386-1394** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter) `[documented]` (origin) A clock existed at Wells and was being maintained by a paid keeper by 1392-1393, and is independently attested in the Wells Chapter Rolls from 1394. The wider construction bracket of 1386-1392 is a reasonable inference from the clock's close structural resemblance to the independently dated 1386 Salisbury clock and from Bishop Ralph Erghum's move from Salisbury to Wells in 1388, not a documented Wells-specific building date. - **undated** Attributed maker: Peter Lightfoot, monk of Glastonbury Abbey, or a workshop associated with him `[disputed]` (attribution) John Leland's mid-16th century inscription names Lightfoot as maker of a clock at Glastonbury Abbey, not Wells. A 19th century legend that the Glastonbury clock was physically moved to Wells at the Dissolution in 1539 is contradicted by the Wells Chapter Rolls' own evidence of a clock at Wells from 1394. Howgrave-Graham's 1922 study proposes instead that Lightfoot's workshop built a separate clock for Wells, while noting Lightfoot would have been about 89 years old by the earliest secure Wells date and that no feature of the surviving fabric can be safely dated earlier than 1394. - **17th century** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter) `[documented]` (alteration) The medieval movement was converted from a foliot-and-verge escapement to a pendulum-and-anchor escapement, the standard upgrade made to English turret clocks of this era. Some sources also place a replacement or repainting of the Jack Blandifer figure in this period, though this is disputed against an alternative reading that the figure is substantially 1390s work. - **early 18th century** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter) `[documented]` (addition) A minute hand, a small star on an inner ring, was added to the interior dial. - **19th century** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter) `[documented]` (alteration) The exterior north transept dial was converted from a 24-hour to a 12-hour face and given gilt Roman numerals. - **unresolved (popularly given as 1835 or 1837; only 1884 is independently corroborated)-1884** South Kensington Museum, administratively linked to the Patent Office Museum; predecessor of the Science Museum, London `[disputed]` (removal and transfer) The medieval movement was withdrawn from active service at Wells and replaced by a new mechanism, still in use today, driving both dials and the automata. The Science Museum Group's own catalogue and its accession number, 1884-77, corroborate 1884 as the year the medieval movement reached the museum. Several popular sources give 1835 or 1837 for the replacement itself without a documentary citation; no source consulted for this record traces either earlier date to a Chapter or Fabric record, and the exact year of physical removal at Wells, as distinct from the year of museum accession, is recorded here as unresolved. - **1909** Science Museum, London (formally separated from the South Kensington Museum) `[documented]` (institutional context) The Science Museum was formally established as a separate institution in 1909; the medieval movement had already been part of the South Kensington collections since 1884, prior to this formal separation. - **2010** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter) `[documented]` (mechanical change) Paul Fisher, Keeper of the Great Clock of Wells, a post his family had held for close to a hundred years, announced his retirement in August 2010. The Cathedral fitted an electric winder to the Victorian movement, ending the practice of winding it by hand. - **2017** Science Museum, London `[documented]` (re-display) The medieval movement was re-displayed for closer visitor viewing, at the time in the Museum's Making the Modern World gallery. - **2022-2023** Wells Cathedral (Dean and Chapter), with Cliveden Conservation and named specialist contractors `[documented]` (conservation) The exterior north transept dial, its motion, bells, timber jacks and counterweights were cleaned, repaired and repainted, based on paint analysis of historic decorative schemes including one applied in 1959. - **present** Dial, automata and current movement: Dean and Chapter of Wells Cathedral, in situ. Medieval movement: Science Museum Group, London, on loan from the Dean and Chapter `[documented]` (current status) Two physically separated components of the historic clock remain in active public display and, in both locations, in working order. ## Exhibitions - Permanent display of the medieval movement, South Kensington Museum, administratively linked to the Patent Office Museum, predecessor of the Science Museum, London, 1884 - Re-display of the medieval movement for closer visitor viewing, Making the Modern World gallery, Science Museum, London, 2017 ## Open questions - What is the actual secure date of construction? The 1386-1392 bracket rests on comparison with the Salisbury clock and on Bishop Erghum's career move, plus a 1392-1393 keeper's payment and 1394 Chapter Roll references; no Wells-specific building contract or completion record was found in the sources consulted. - Did Peter Lightfoot build the Wells clock at all, personally or through a workshop? Leland's inscription names the Glastonbury clock, not Wells; Howgrave-Graham's own 1922 study flags that Lightfoot would have been about 89 years old by the earliest secure Wells date. - Exactly when and why was the medieval movement withdrawn from service at Wells? Popular sources circulate 1835 and 1837 without a documentary citation; the only figure corroborated in the sources consulted is 1884, the Science Museum's own accession year, which may not be the same year the movement actually stopped turning the dials at Wells. - Does the current Jack Blandifer figure date substantially from the 1390s under later paint, or is it a 17th century replacement? Sources disagree and no published technical study resolving the question was located. - Is the Wells or the Salisbury mechanism really the world's oldest surviving clock? The claim is contested even among specialists; a 1993 Antiquarian Horological Society review found roughly 30 percent of participants doubted Salisbury's 1386 date, and Wells was itself once thought as late as the 16th century before Salisbury's rediscovery reset the comparison. - What is the relationship between the Science Museum's two catalogue entries for the Wells movement and its components, which give different dimensions and weights for what appears to be the same or directly related material? No source consulted resolves this cataloguing discrepancy. - What are the exact terms of the loan under which the Science Museum displays the medieval movement? The Museum's own credit line states it is on loan from the Dean and Chapter of Wells Cathedral, but no source consulted for this record publishes the loan agreement's date or terms. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'Wells Cathedral clock'. Tertiary source; consulted for the dial description, the construction-date citations (Reid 1963, Howgrave-Graham 1922, Leland 1768, Smeeton 1828), and the 2010 hand-winding retirement. Flagged for replacement with the primary Chapter Roll material and a peer-reviewed horological study where they can be independently obtained. - [2] Science Museum Group Collection, 'Wells Cathedral clock, 1392' (object co1347, object number 1884-77 Pt1). - [3] Science Museum Group Collection, 'Wells Cathedral clock, with components' (object co121). - [4] Science Museum Group, 'Winding The Wells', Science Museum Blog. - [5] Science Museum Group, 'Step back in time: two historical clocks are re-displayed', Science Museum Blog, 2017. - [6] R. P. Howgrave-Graham, 'Peter Lightfoot, Monk of Glastonbury, and the Old Clock at Wells: A Poem with an Illustrated Account of the Clock' (Glastonbury: Avalon Press, 1922). Full text consulted via the Internet Archive's digitised copy. - [7] Institute of Conservation (Icon), 'Wells Cathedral's famous medieval clock has been restored', 3 April 2023. - [8] The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, 'Wells Cathedral', news item on the exterior dial conservation appeal, June 2022. - [9] Association of English Cathedrals, 'Astronomical clock - Wells Cathedral'. - [10] Horologica, 'Oldest working clock with a dial - Wells'. Tertiary, enthusiast source. Flagged for replacement with a peer-reviewed horological study, such as material published in Antiquarian Horology. - [11] Horologica, 'Salisbury Cathedral and the oldest working clock?'. Tertiary, enthusiast source, consulted for the 1993 Antiquarian Horological Society symposium and the Salisbury clock's own history. Flagged for replacement with the Antiquarian Horological Society's own published proceedings. - [12] Wikipedia, 'Salisbury Cathedral clock'. Tertiary source, consulted for the comparison with Wells and the clock's own dating history. - [13] Wikipedia, 'Ottery St Mary astronomical clock'. Tertiary source, consulted to confirm the Grandisson attribution and rule out a Lightfoot connection. - [14] Wikipedia, 'Wimborne Minster astronomical clock'. Tertiary source, consulted for the tentative Lightfoot attribution given there. - [15] Historic England, List Entry 1382901, 'Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Wells'. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.