The city clocks that are losing track of time

People may wake up tomorrow wondering what the time is when clocks spring forward to mark the start of British Summer Time.

But in one city, you'd be forgiven for being even more confused.

Take a quick walk around the centre of Norwich and you will find several of the 48 public clocks, some of which are more than 150 years old, displaying different times – some about 10 minutes out.

Experts say the older the clock, the harder it is to keep it running correctly.

Some are located on civic buildings while others were once used as advertising for high street firms.

Large clocks adorning the Castle Quarter shopping centre, the Guildhall in Gaol Hill and the former National Westminster bank building in London Street are among those that are out of sync or have stopped working.

In some streets, such as London Street, you can find as many as three or four clocks with hands pointing to different hours and minutes.

One of Norwich's best-known clocks is found at City Hall, built in the 1930s.

It has needed several repairs costing thousands of pounds in recent years and it can often stop working.

But currently, it is telling the correct time.

The firm called on to keep it ticking is Michlmayr, a clock and watchmaker based in the city.

Owner Simon Michlmayr and his team are experts in restoring large public clocks and have recently been deployed to Ipswich Town Hall, and they continue to restore Norwich's City Hall clock.

"We go all over the country doing maintenance on public clocks," he said.

"The difficulty [depends] on how old the clock is.

"The more modern ones are thought out better for maintenance.

"I go home some nights and I'm covered from head to foot in muck because you've had to crawl through stuff to get to the clock to fix it.

"Access can be a problem."

Scaling up scaffolding and even abseiling from the City Hall tower are among the methods used by Michlmayr to repair the clock over the past two decades.

"That side of it is very physical work," Michlmayr said.

"The parts are very heavy… you have to take everything apart to get it out of the building. You can't take it out as a unit.

"It is fun though. I love everything we do."

With many of the city's clocks displaying different hours of the day, an ancient form of time-keeping is perhaps more reliable.

There are 10 public sundials in the city, with most visible from its streets, such as the one on the side of the St Peter Mancroft church.

But of course, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

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