the south wall there is an astronomical clock dating back to circa 1320. It was built by a monk named Peter Lightfoot at Glastonbury.
sun points to the time of day (there is no minute hand), and the gold/black orb
represents the moon, and shows the phases of the moon.
When there is a full moon, it will be completely golden and when there is
an eclipse it will be completely black. The
intermediate phases such as half-moon or a three- quarters moon, will be
correspondingly shown as half black and half gold or three-quarters gold and a
quarter black etc.
casing on the wall holds the cogs, which move the sun and moon around the face
of the clock. The actual works are
in the belfry and there is a model of the complete clock left of the west door.
to the clock is a full size Grenadier, called the Quarterjack, which strikes the
quarter hours. This figure is on
the north wall outside the Minster. The
original figure was that of a monk, but this was replaced during the Napoleonic