Man builds 25ft water-powered cuckoo clock

A hydrogeologist who brought water to arid farmlands in Saudi Arabia and Nepal, Richard Pim has spent around three years designing and making, piece by piece, his latest engineering marvel, a 25ft, fully water-powered cuckoo clock in Westonbury Mill Water Gardens near Pembridge in Herefordshire.



Believed to be the only giant cuckoo clock in the UK, and the first in the world to run using water, the mechanism sends a three foot cuckoo out into the Pembridge sky to the sound of bird calls on the hour, every hour – well, almost.


YouTube link.

“It’s gaining a few minutes every day at the moment,” explained Richard. “But no-one’s setting their watches by it.” The warmer weather apparently causes the water to flow differently through the system’s myriad pipes and tanks.