Like other cities, towns and villages across the country, at the end of World War I the village of Baydon wanted to commemorate their fallen with a permanent memorial.
At a parish meeting in February 1919, four options for the memorial were discussed: a stained-glass window, a church bell, a monument on the green or a church clock. The village decided to commission a clock at a cost of £80 – approximately £3600 today – with the funds being raised from working villagers. The clock dedication service took place on 16 August 1919.
In the century since its installation, the clock has been well maintained and regularly serviced, however, over the past few years has been showing signs of age, with its face peeling and parts of its internal mechanism wearing out. As a significant landmark in the village, a successful application was made to the War Memorials Trust for a grant to refurbish the clock, with additional funding coming from the parish council.
Following its successful restoration, on Wednesday 12 November Bishop Andrew led a service for the rededication of the clock. With the passage of time, its original purpose – as a memorial to honour the fallen – is not always remembered, and the rededication was an important opportunity to make everyone aware that as well as being a functioning clock, it holds a deeper significance.
The rededication service used part of the original service from the clock’s dedication in 1919, including one hymn, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, as well as two readings. Key Stage 2 children from Baydon St Nicholas C of E Primary School were at the service, leading the prayers as well as performing a song. During the service, Bishop Andrew asked the congregation, both children and adults, to reflect on why clocks were important and how they allow us to ‘know ourselves’ by placing our time within a longer story. He also intrepidly climbed the tower to see the workings of the clock.
More than 35 members of the community were at the service, and following the rededication of the clock outside the church, the chair of the parish council laid a wreath in memory of the men who gave their lives from the village. Bishop Andrew was then taken on a tour of the school by the head and a group of year six boys, before returning to the church to join in the newly formed Baydon Banter community gathering and coffee morning.
The Baydon memorial clock is a rare example of a functional memorial: a practical object serving daily life while preserving collective remembrance. It stands as a symbol of time, loss and enduring community memory.
