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Andy: 'It's the clock's big moment"

It may not have the most famous bongs in the world, but at 11.59pm on 31 December, all eyes and ears in Manchester will be on the Town Hall clock.

Just as London counts in the New Year to the sound of Big Ben, so thousands of people in Manchester will be listening for the chime of Great Abel -  the giant bell in Manchester Town Hall - to mark the first moment of 2009.

Great Abel: the Town Hall's giant bell

It all adds up to a nerve-wracking time for the man whose job it is to keep the clock ticking over and the chimes on time.

"It’s the clock’s big moment," explained Andy Haymes, the Town Hall’s services manager and unofficial keeper of the clock.

I found Andy at the top of a Hogwarts-style staircase that spirals up the 280 foot clock tower making adjustments to the complicated array of cogs, pulleys and levers that make it chime on the hour.

"We do rely on the clock for New Year’s Eve and there’s certainly a lot of people that gather in the Square to welcome in the New Year with our bell," he said.

"But we always have a bit of a panic in case it doesn’t work properly. And if it’s going to fail, it’s going to fail in the run-up to New Year's Eve."

Keeping time

It’s thanks to Andy and his late father that the clock strikes at all. Back in the 1990s, when the original 120-year-old clock mechanism stopped working, it fell to Andy Haymes to get it working.

Fireworks: New Year in Manchester

"It was a Saturday afternoon, and I got a phone call to say the Town Hall clock hands were flying round and people were standing outside laughing at it," he explained.

Although, not an engineer, Andy assigned himself the unofficial role of keeper of the Town Hall clock.

An electric back up system was installed to get the clock ticking again. But without the brass cogs to work the giant hammer in the 280 ft bell tower, the chimes fell silent.

"My dad went very, very quiet and asked: ‘Is it true that it doesn’t work, this beautiful machine?’ So I said 'yes' and he said: 'Well, that’s ridiculous, it’s sacrilege, it should be working.' So he persuaded me to get involved and repair it."

And, although neither of them had fixed a clock before, that’s exactly what they did – by whatever method they could.

"In some cases, we’d taped pieces of cardboard to it to make it go and prove that we were right," explained Andy. "Then we made the parts out of brass and fitted them and the clock’s been chiming ever since really. Until very recently!"

Striking

The problem is, the clock has started to go wrong again - but only when Andy goes on holiday! In late November, when Andy took a short break to Scotland, he got a call to say the clock had stopped.

Striking: the hammer is poised

"I left the city for a few days and it didn’t like that," he said. "And it did exactly the same when I went away last year - more or less to the day. I think it misses me," he said.

So after some late repairs, Andy is now crossing his fingers that the Town Hall clock, his pride and joy, rings in the New Year on time.

But does it matter? In today's technological world, with mobile phones and precision Quartz wrist watches, is there still a place for a striking clock in the city centre?

"I’d like to think that people still set their watches by the Town Hall clock," he admitted. "Just as Andy Haymes sets the Town Hall clock by his watch!"