Timewalk success

Cllr Paul Lendon's Bexhill Timewalk attracted an encouraging following.

In the next two hours the walkers were to hear about the history behind a selection of well-known Bexhill clocks.

Appropriately, Paul was starting his two-hour, three-mile guided tour at the Clock Tower for delving into the story behind that structure for its centenary in 2004 had been the starting-point for his researches.

He explained how the clock mechanism has been removed for its first thorough overhaul in more than 100 years. The four clock dials, badly corroded by more than a century of exposure to the salt-laden air, are currently being renovated.

Hopefully, the Clock Tower will be back in working order by February.

Like the Colonnade and the Museum, the Clock Tower is benefitting from European Union funding under a scheme which will soon see the official switch-on of new up-lighters sunken into the road surface about its base.

Cllr Lendon explained how in 2004 he had approached his fellow Charter Trustees - members of Rother council who represent Bexhill seats - for the money to put a commemorative plaque on the Clock Tower for its centenary.

The walkers' next stop would be at the Rotary Club "human sundial," also on West Parade but - like the Clock Tower - inoperative on a walk where the December overcast never lifted.

From there, Cllr Lendon led his party to De La Warr Parade to see the clock installed on flats overlooking the Sailing Club.

Bexhill Youth and Community Centre in Station Road was next on the list, followed by the Town Hall, Old Town, Bexhill Hospital, Bexhill Amateur Athletic Club, the gatehouse of the former St Francis' School on West Down Road, the former Bexhill West Station and, finally, Egerton Park outdoor bowling pavilion.