Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 58

life

FEATURE

Tick Tock Newport's new clock
The wraps are off. On December
3rd the scaffolding came down
and the people of Newport
could at last see the gleaming
newly-gilded faces of the clock
tower of Newport Minster.
This was not just a much-needed
restoration of some crumbling
architecture. While both faces,
the west and the south, were
in a sorry state, the one facing
south is a brand new inset.
While the repaired face carries
the date 1857, when the church
was restored, the new face is
marked with 2008, the year the
Isle of Wight was given its own
minster.
The minster was inaugurated by
the Prince of Wales in October,
and it has been quite a year for
the church, both for the building
itself and for its people. Canon
Dr Stephen Palmer explains that
becoming a minster symbolises
St Thomas’s ministry to the
community as a whole. “It’s a
space available to everybody,”
he says. “The wonderful
principle is primus inter pares,

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which means first among equals.
That doesn’t mean we’re better
than anyone else. It’s a symbol
of recognition, that, as well as
being the first thing you see in
Newport, it is also the church of
the civil community – it’s where
the law service is held, and the
large remembrance service,
among many others.”
For Canon Palmer the
unmasking of the church from

its scaffolding marks the end
of “an interesting year”, when,
as well as his church’s changed
status, he was made a Chaplain
to the Queen.
The brand new face wasn’t
in the original plan, as Simon
Armstrong of Wells Cathedral
Stonemasons explains. “We
could see from the ground it
was in need of attention, but
it wasn’t till we were close that

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