Fakenham church clock is removed to be modernised

The clock at Peter and St Paul's Church in Fakenham, Norfolk will be updated with an electronic device

A church clock that has been telling the time in a market town for 160 years has been temporarily taken down to be modernised.

The work will see the clock at St Peter and St Paul's in Fakenham, Norfolk, updated with an electronic device so it will no longer need to be wound by hand twice a week.

Money left as a bequest will pay for the work, church leaders said.

Clock maker Simon Michlmayr said it was an undertaking to work on the project.

He said the clock, made by Cooke, had to be taken to pieces so it could be removed from the tower.

It is then going to be worked on in his company's workshop and taken apart again in order to return it, before being reassembled at the church.

Mr Michlmayr said it was "physically hard work, but also you have to think about what you're doing because it's not something you want to make a mistake on".

"We have to make sure everything's done really, really carefully to make sure when we come back to site, we don't get any issues," said the Norwich-based clock maker.

Simon Michlmayr said there was a lot to think about when working on a church tower clock

He said once the renovation work was complete, it would save the winders, who have been ascending the equivalent of 12 flights of stairs in a normal house for many years, from manually winding the clock.

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Mr Michlmayr said the clock would still be mechanical and tell the time and strike itself, but the new system would "take the effort out" of winding the clock.

He said Cooke's clocks were "quite superb, probably one of the best tower clock makers there ever were", and said it was "lovely" to be able to work on one of them.

The clock on the Norfolk church was made by Cooke

Once the work is complete, he said the clock would not need major work again for 20 or 30 years.

John Mullins, from the church, said the tower stood out "like a beacon for the town" and the clock could be heard a mile away.

He said it was the first time it had been fully removed in its history.