The Eastgate Broadsheet

Lead · City

Council Votes to Keep the Clock Tower Clocks Wound by Hand

After a nine-month review, members rejected an electric movement — “the tick is part of the street”, one member said — and hired an apprentice instead.

The vote, taken shortly before eleven, was closer than anyone expected. Proponents of an electric movement had argued for reliability; opponents argued that a winding key turned once a week is the cheapest civic ritual the city still keeps.

The chamberlain estimated the saving at four hundred pounds a year. The clerk pointed out that the tower's bell is rung by a person, and that the two decisions are not unrelated.

An apprenticeship will be posted in the new year. Candidates must not be afraid of heights, or of Fridays.

Quarry Road · 6 min read

Bakery at Number 14 Will Not Close, Says Third Generation of Hollises

Rumours of a sale were “flour dust in the wind”, the family said, confirming that the sourdough starter — begun in 1978 — remains very much alive.

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Transport · 4 min read

Night Bus 12 Gets a New Route and an Older Bus

Passengers will notice the difference mostly in the corners. The timetable, gratifyingly, stays exactly as it was.

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Feature

The Man Who Counts the River

Environment · 11 min read

Every morning for thirty-one years, Peter Ndlovu has walked the bank with a notebook and read the water like a page. What he has learned is mostly about patience, and partly about rain four valleys away.

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A Grammar of Repair Shops

Trade · 7 min read

Sharpeners, cobblers, radio men: the district still runs a small economy of mending, and its practitioners share one rule — never explain a price you have not first explained a problem.

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Letters: On Seagulls, Scaffolding and Silence

Correspondence

Readers write in, at length, about the birds. One suggests a falcon. Another suggests patience. A third suggests the falcon be given the scaffolding.

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“A city is a set of agreements about noise. This week we recommend keeping the Tuesday ones.”

Weather · page 4

14°
Bright spells, turning
grey by teatime · wind SW 9

Markets

    Crossword 4,182

    ■ B A S I S ■ ■ ■ ■ 1 ■ ■ T I M E ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ R ■ 4 ■ Q ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

    1 across: grounds for argument (6). Answers, page 12.

    Births & Notices

    MERCER — a daughter, Iris, at Eastgate General; both well. Lost: one grey glove, Cathedral Steps, claimable at this office.