Clocks

Apart from the clock of Funchal Cathedral (Sé Catedral do Funchal), there are clocks for telling the public the time in the following places: São Martinho, Monte, Camacha, Santa Cruz, Ponta do Sol, Canhas and Estreito da Calheta (1921). The tower of the parish church of Machico once had a clock, which stopped working in 1824.

The clock of the church of São Martinho was inaugurated in 1922. That of the church of Monte was acquired by the church’s own fabric fund in the time of the late vicar, Canon Francisco José Rodrigues de Almada. The clock of Camacha (see that entry), which stands in a tower at the locality (sítio) of Achada (‘plateau’), and that of Santa Cruz were gifts: the latter from the late R. Blandy and the former from Dr Grabham. The clock at Canhas, installed on the Levada do Poiso (‘resting place’), belongs to the heréus (co-owners of the water rights of a levada) of this levada. The clock of Estreito da Calheta was given by a group of young men from that parish (freguesia) living away in South Africa. Since 1899 the tower of the church of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) has had a clock acquired by the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal).

The present clock of Funchal Cathedral (Sé) was offered by Dr M. Grabham to the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) at its session of 3 August 1914, but it did not reach Madeira until 8 November 1921, aboard the steamer Walmer Castle. It was blessed by the diocesan prelate on 23 February 1922, and the late Emperor of Austria, Emperor Charles I, attended the ceremony. On 27 July of the same year the vice-president of the Council declared that the clock had already been handed over to the Municipality; the fitting of two of the hands, the last work carried out on it, had been completed on 30 June.

The old Cathedral clock, taken down on 6 December 1921 so that the clock offered by Dr Grabham could be installed, was commissioned in 1775, during the governorship of João António de Sá Pereira. Its mechanism bears the following inscription: ‘This clock was made under the administration of the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Governor João António de Sá Pereira. Year 1775. Paulo de França fecit.

On 6 August 1776 the Council appointed the first employee to look after the Cathedral clock, and from then on the clock always remained in the charge of the Municipality, which appointed the clockkeepers. The Council’s records contain no note explaining how the clock came to be handed over to the Municipality.

In 1823 the Council had the clock thoroughly repaired. The work cost 85,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) and was carried out by José Pedro Pereira, a locksmith, who charged nothing for his labour ‘since it was a work for the public, to whom he wished to be useful’. ‘The clock,’ says an old document, ‘was left perfect, having been on the point of being abandoned, and in Lisbon no one would have repaired it for less than 400 patacas’.

The original hour bell of the Cathedral clock broke – in what circumstances we do not know – and was replaced by a bell from the former convent of São Francisco, requisitioned by the Council in 1835. Around the same time the clock’s quarter bell was exchanged for a bell from the church of the College (Colégio) of São João Evangelista. The broken bell was put up for public auction by the Council and sold for 2,400 réis per arroba (weight of about 15 kg).

The four stone dials of the old Cathedral clock, which were reused for the present clock, measure 2.3 m in diameter, and their numerals are 0.35 m high. The hands, which could not be reused because they did not show the minutes, were 1.35 m long.

In the days when there was no clock in the Cathedral tower, the hours were announced there by a timekeeper, who was paid at first from the revenue of the wine levy (imposição do vinho) and later from the surplus of the Customs House tithes. The oldest document we know concerning this official dates from 11 April 1713, but everything suggests that already in the 17th century someone was charged with striking the hours, or some of them. This was a necessity for bringing a certain regularity to public and private business, above all at a time when wall clocks and pocket watches were still very uncommon in Funchal.