Time eater

March 30, 2025

British Summer Time begins on March 30, 2025. As surveyors, we look forward to the longer daylight hours and warmer weather. We recall a survey we assisted Corpus Christi College, Cambridge with, one of the world’s most unique timepieces to be built, the Corpus Clock. The clock took 5 years to create, and the project cost £1 million, with 200 people involved in its construction.

Aworth Survey Consultants undertook an incredibly detailed survey of the former NatWest bank entrance, constructed in 1866 using highly precise electronic survey instrumentation and meticulous hand measurement. A series of 1/20 survey plan, elevation and section drawings were produced to enable the fitment of the Corpus Clock. 

Created as a public work of art, the Corpus Clock locust was deliberately designed to be “terrifying”, a prominent reminder to all who pass, that time is constantly being eaten up every minute of our lives, time we will never recover.

The Corpus Clock, officially unveiled in 2008 by physicist Stephen Hawking, has since been featured in films and won the title Time’s Best Inventions.

Photo Credit: By Corpus Clock by Josie Campbell, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109308336

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