Hampton Court astronomical clock
{{Short description|16th-century astronomical clock in London}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File: Hampton Court Astrological Clock.jpg
Hampton Court astronomical clock is a sixteenth-century astronomical clock in Hampton Court Palace in England.
History and description
File:Hampton court courtyard.jpg
The clock was installed in 1540 on the gatehouse to the inner court at Hampton Court Palace. It was designed by Nicholas Kratzer and made by Nicholas Oursian.{{cite book|last1=Shepherd|first1=Rose|date=2014|chapter=A Man of Property|title=At Home with Henry VIII: His Life, His Wives, His Palaces|location=London|publisher=CICO Books|page=179|isbn=978-1-78249-160-6}} This pre-Copernican and pre-Galilean astronomical clock is still functioning.
The clock is {{convert|15|ft}} in diameter with three separate copper dials revolving at different speeds and displays the following information:
- Hour
- Month
- Day of month
- Twelve signs of the zodiac
- Position of the Sun in the ecliptic relative to the background stars (zodiac)
- Number of days since the beginning of the year
- Phases of the moon
- Days since last new moon ({{abbreviation|poet.|poetically and archaically}} "age of the moon")
- Hour when it passes meridian/anti-meridian and thus high water at London Bridge.Thurley, Simon (1996). Hampton Court Palace. London: Historic Royal Palaces.
The latter information was of great importance to those visiting this Thames-side palace from London, as the preferred method of transport at the time was by barge. Two consequences flowed: journey time, which departing around high water would speed instead of hinder; and all but the most skilled or reckless watermen above the bridge would avoid nearing London Bridge at times of great surface-water ebb under the (then famously built-up, barrage-like) bridge to avoid being swept into the starlings (cutwaters) or arches above.
The clock was restored in 1711 by William Herbert,{{cite web|url=http://www.clockmaker.co.uk/hampton-court-palace/|title=Hampton Court Palace|work=clockmaker.co.uk|access-date=11 February 2015}} with a simplified 18th century face, while retaining the 24-hour dial, and a single clock hand.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fromoldbooks.org/OldEngland/pages/1732-clock-at-hampton-court/|title=1732.—Clock at Hampton Court.|website=www.fromoldbooks.org}} The astrological dials were removed, and subsequently mislaid. In 1831 the mechanism was replaced with that of a 1799 clock from St James's Palace. In 1879 the astronomical dials were rediscovered and replaced, and Gillett & Bland manufactured a new clock movement.
The clock was fully restored in 2007 and 2008 by the Cumbria Clock Company in Dacre, Cumbria in time for the 500th anniversary of the accession of King Henry VIII.{{cite web |url=http://www.hrp.org.uk/NewsAndMedia/hcpresources/astronomicalclockreturns |title=Astronomical clock returns |publisher=Hrp.org.uk |date=23 April 2008 |access-date=2013-08-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528212230/http://www.hrp.org.uk/NewsAndMedia/hcpresources/astronomicalclockreturns |archive-date=28 May 2013 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.hallconservation.com/?portfolio=astronomical-clock-hampton-court-palace|title=Astronomical Clock, Hampton Court Palace|date=January 16, 2013}}
The clock features both on the cover and in the plot of Robert Galbraith’s Troubled Blood.{{Cite web|title=Troubled Blood {{!}} Latest Crime Novel By Robert Galbraith|url=https://robert-galbraith.com/?stories=troubled-blood|access-date=2020-09-21|website=Robert Galbraith|language=en-GB}}
See also
References
{{Commons category|Hampton Court astronomical clock}}
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{{LB Richmond}}
{{Astronomical clocks}}
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Category:Astronomical clocks in the United Kingdom
Category:Individual clocks in England