A MAN who has wound up a Lake District town's landmark clock every week for the past 27 years has decided to call time on the job.

Thomas Bland, 84, of Windermere, has ensured the Baddeley Clock, at the junction of the town's New Road and Lake Road, has read the correct time by winding it every Saturday morning since 1990.

Unfortunately, ill health has meant he has had to give up and hand the responsibility back to Windermere Town Council.

"It was a love of doing it I suppose that kept me doing it all those years," said Mr Bland. "It was a service to the community.

"The job was advertised locally, the council was looking for someone to do it. There was a guy who had done it for eight years before me and I had just retired from the fire brigade so I took the job on.

"It was just a hobby to me so I carried on doing it. I got the job for as long as I wanted it but my health is not too good these days so I've had to pack it in."

The job of winding up the clock will now be the duty of Windermere Town Council clerk Julie Hartley and town steward Gary Hancox.

Mrs Hartley paid tribute to Mr Bland's commitment to role over such a long period of time.

"It's wonderful when people do things like that for their community," she said. "We are extremely grateful to Tom for his contribution – to replace him we're going to need two people.

"We will be doing our best to keep up to Tom's standard."

The Baddeley Clock tower marks the division between Windermere and Bowness and was built as a memorial to Mountford John Byrde Baddeley (1843 - 1906) who wrote a series of well-regarded walking guides from the new town of Windermere.