Norwich Cathedral astronomical clock

It replaced an earlier 13th-century "old clock", one of the earliest weight-driven mechanical timekeepers made in England.

The clock's costs were recorded by the Benedictine monks in the priory's Sacrist’s Rolls from 1322 to 1325, which provide the earliest known detailed account of English clockmaking.

The clock was destroyed in a fire in the 17th century and was replaced in about 1620 by a simpler device, now lost, although two "jacquemarts" or clock-jacks have survived.

They are located above the southern exit door, close to the original position of the astronomical clock.

The original clock at Norwich Cathedral was one of the earliest mechanical timekeepers made in medieval England.

[7] The dial was completed after having been originally wrecked by the clockmaker Robert de Turri, who became insolvent as a result of his poor workmanship on the clock.

9d, Also delivered to Robert of the Tower, for making of the great dial, 10s; and so much in danger of being lost, because from his poverty he was unable to perfect the work, nor was any thing to be obtained from him.

[17] A painting made in around 1630 (known to exist in Strangers' Hall, Norwich, in 1946) described the south transept as "the Ile where the clock standeth".

[6] Built for use indoors,[19] they are 51 centimetres (20 in) high, helmeted and in Jacobean era costume, with hammers to strike the bells.

Briggs travelled around the region and used the jacks when working as an entertainer, singing and putting on a ventriloquist act.

Once designed to move on a pivot,[18] they were fixed on an oak stand with a Latin inscription below each one, along with a poem on card, accompanied by an English translation.

[17] Horas significo cunctas quas Phoebe diebus, Quas solet atque tua pallida nocte soror; Nec magis errarem, rector mihi si foret idem, Nos qui, et quaeque regit motibus astra suis Tempora nam recte designo, si mihi doctus, Custos assiduam conferat artis opem.