History of St. Albans

y in England. The tower's design was based on the Clock House at Westminster Palace that the architect Henry Yevele (Wolvey's master) built in 1365. The Clock Tower was used to sound the curfew until 1863. The Tower was also used as a semaphore station from 1808 to 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. The architect George Gilbert Scott restored the structure of the tower in 1865-6; he also added the gothic spire and parapets.

The original bell, named for the Archangel Gabriel (cast round the bell is the Latin rhyme "From Heaven I come/Gabriel my name"), is still in use, though chimed rather than rung; it last rang out for Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901. It sounds F-natural and weighs one ton.

Gabriel sounded at 4 am for the Angelus and at 8 or 9 pm for the curfew. A small bell, dated 1729, was moved in the Clock Tower from the market place nearby, where it opened business until 1855.

The ground floor of the tower was a shop until the 20th century. The first- and second-floor rooms were designed as living chambers. The shop and the first floor were connected by a flight of spiral stairs. Another flight rises the whole height of the tower by 93 narrow steps and gave access to the living chamber, the clock and the bell without disturbing the tenant of the shop.

The old clock may have been removed in the 18th century and replaced by a pendulum clock. The present clock incorporates a four-legged gravity escapement invented by Lord Grimthorpe, the local horologist and restorer of the Abbey who designed Big Ben's mechanism.

Borough of St Albans

St Albans was an ancient borough created following the dissolution of the monastery in 1539. It consisted of the ancient parish of St Albans (also known as the Abbey parish) and parts of St Michael and St Peter. The municipal corporation was reformed by the Municipal