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The Ivanhoe Clock

Richard the Lionheart and Friar Tuck have struck the hours in a Leeds arcade since 1877

The Ivanhoe Clock

Four life-sized Victorian figures crown the end of Thornton’s Arcade in Leeds — Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Richard the Lionheart, and Gurth the Swineherd, drawn from Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Installed in 1877 by clockmakers William Potts & Sons and sculptor John Wormald Appleyard, they raise their fists to strike a bell each hour and quarter: Richard and Friar Tuck mark the hours, Robin Hood and Gurth the quarters. The blows are theater — the five bells, cast by John Taylor of Loughborough, actually ring inside the mechanism.

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