Since the medieval period, mechanical clocks located in churches across Britain have told the time to local communities, or displayed the phases of the moon and the heavens on an elaborate astrological face.

Focusing on some of the most noteworthy church clocks in Britain, and the intriguing stories behind them, this book traces the history of church clocks from the wealthy abbeys and cathedrals of the medieval period, through the gentle developments and refinements that made clocks more accurate and easier to maintain, to the electronic movements of the present day that are steadily making redundant historic clocks that have served for centuries.