STROUD’S main clock is keeping time once again - thanks to the town council and a 72-year-old volunteer.

Sims Clock, also known as the Four Clocks, in Russell Street, has not worked for several years.

It is one of the landmarks owned by Stroud District Council that was transferred to the town council control in April.

Marcus Jelfs approached the town council with an offer of voluntary help to get the time-piece ticking again.  The qualified precision engineer, who spent much of his life working in the aircraft and radar industry, couldn’t wait to climb the tower and work out what was wrong.

“My wife, Rosemary, and I often come to Stroud to go shopping or have a cup of coffee and we always thought it was a shame it wasn’t working. It looked terrible with its hands stuck at 12 o’clock week in, week out,” he said.

“Now it’s running accurately within one minute a week – that’s not about my skill, it’s the skill of someone who made it in 1921.”

Mr Jelfs also keeps the clock in his home village of Upton St Leonards working.

Made by JB Joyce of Whitchurch, Shropshire, the Sims Clock has undergone alterations in the past, including being changed from having to be wound daily to a seven-day mechanism.

The clock is named after William Thomas Sims, who left a bequest of £1,000 in 1917 to build a town clock in Stroud.

It used to have a big handle that made it hard work to wind-up so Mr Jelfs manufactured a new one using tools from his vintage car restoration work. Now it has gone from taking 15 minutes to wind up to two. He’s also made it easier to adjust.