A CLOCK enthusiast from Dorset has penned the first comprehensive history of one of Britain’s most famous landmarks, Big Ben.

Chris McKay, from Hinton Martell, has put his 30 years of turret clock expertise into Big Ben: The Great Clock and Bells at the Palace of Westminster, published last week. The 61-year-old began researching the Westminster designer Lord Grimthorpe, but came up with something to interest bell ringers, fans of Victorian architecture and social historians.

“I realised there had never been a proper book on the clock tower,” he said.

“So I went through Parliamentary and national archives digging up all sorts of things and bringing it all together. It was intense work.

“It’s not just for specialists, anyone can find an interest.

“It looks into all the characters, and how they were related.”

The illustrated book starts with a typical visit to the clock tower then charts the history of the Palace of Westminster, including the building of the new Houses of Parliament with the development of the clock and the bells with details on their design and installation.

It also covers the cracking of the current bell in 1859 and the disaster of 1976, ending with a detailed technical description of the clock mechanism.

A committee member of the Turret Clock Group of the Antiquarian Horological Society for 27 years, Mr McKay’s passion began at 13.

“I was always taking things apart,” he said.

“There was a tower next to my school playing field, and I guess it all started there.”

It was this derelict clock that he first helped to restore at 19, work that later took him to Africa, America, Canada and Italy.