Adventures with Local Turret Clocks N.O7!
St Dunstan’s Church, Cheam, Sutton SM3 8QH
18th December 2025
Writing this on the 15th February 2026, I really need to get on top of writing AWLTC! I just visited my 19th clock yesterday and so you know how many blogs there are to come! (and how many I’m behind by!)
Today’s turret clock is one in the lovely church in St Dunstan’s Cheam, in Sutton
There has been a church on the St Dunstan’s site since the Saxon times however the oldest surviving part of the parish is the Lumley Chapel which is the only part of the medieval St Dunstan’s church (founded by the Archbishop of Canterbury) built in 1018, that survives.
The present church is a Victorian building being built in 1862-1864. It was designed by architect F.H Pownall in the Gothic Revival style and includes materials such as Kentish ragstone and Bath Stone dressings (very similar to holy trinity Wandsworth).
The church is now a Grade II listed building
The tower and the spire were completed in 1871 (after the main church construction) and a ring of six bells was installed. There was silence in the tower in the early 20th century, however they were restored and rehung during the 1970s
Lumley Chapel
It was unfortunately a very rainy day when me and my mother made the journey to Cheam to climb up this tower.
As we ran up to the main entrance of the church, we found that the door was to no avail, locked! Having no umbrella in typical English weather is not a smart idea and so we stood about in the rain not really knowing what we should do.
However, we were not in the rain for long as we found our guide Adrian standing by the tower door waiting for us (with an Umbrella), and soon we found ourselves inside the tower, away from the gales outside.
Climbing up the tower, and fighting a few cobwebs, we emerged into what was the bell ringing room. Adrian informed us that due to a circumstances bellringing isn’t conducted at St Dunstan’s at the moment and so the room is unused. As said above, there are 6 bells at St Dunstan’s although I’m not sure who cast them.
Clambering up another level of the tower, we entered to what is the clock room. Peering at a case by the entryway, we see a very nice 3 train clock by John Moore.
The clock, like all of Moore’s clocks, is fantastic quality and very nicely engineered. This particular example dates from 1871 and has a deadbeat escapement. It’s a lot smaller than the one seen at St Annes Limehouse (probably being about half the size) however still of course, substantial.
The clock is serviced by Smiths of Derby annually, however when we visited, the clocks autowinders were out of order which meant that the clock was not running. I may have to make a return visit to the outside of St Dunstan’s to see if the clock is going!
The mechanism
After taking some photos for the AHS archive and having a nice chat, it was time to descend the tower. Unfortunately there isn’t much else I can say about this particular clock! However, it is of course lovely to see.
And of course as we always say… on to the next one!
Clockman's Adventures! 