Visiting St Albans cathedral you will find a nice booklet for sale on God's clockmaker, one Richard of Wallingford (hat tip from SIS member David Roth). He built a clock that not only told the time but predicted lunar eclipses accurately, and tracked the journey of the Sun. What is remarkable is that at that time it was thought the Sun orbited around the Earth – instead of the other way round (but it worked).
Richard of Wallingford was the son of a blacksmith who became orphaned and was taken in by the Church at Wallingford, then a subsidiary of St Albans Abbey. He went to Oxford University and studied mathematics and astronomy and later joined the abbey at St Albans. In 1327 he became the abbot and set about making his clock, his legacy. The heavy metal gear technology for the clock is almost identical to the technology of the abbey's new mill – and it is interesting to note that he was able to compel the townsfolk of St Albans to grind their corn at the abbey mill and surrender up to him their hand-mills.
The 1320s was a wet period of climate and grain crops were affected, so much so that in some parts of the country their was famine amongst the peasantry. Was there a connection?
Some of the answers to this can be found at www.nicholaswhyte.info/row.htm … 'The Astronomical Clock of Richard of Wallingford' – which is a good overview of the clock and its maker, without having to dip into your pockets for the expensive tome on the subject by Professor John North. The clock represented up to date technology – and so did the abbey mill. Richard was able to demonstrate the abbey had a direct connection to heaven and the horse-mill, built at considerable expense, was able to produce big profits. The new mill was a substantial investment and cutting edge technology, wuite unlike the hand mills of the local peasants which were simple but cheap to make.
As a mathematician and astronomer Richard was not so renowned as a theologian, and spent most of his time as an abbot on his clock. I doubt that your average Large Hadron Collider scientist thinks much about the ordinary people paying their taxes and subsidising their toy – and this was likely the case with Richard of Wallingford.
Apparently he also suffered from leprosy – or a disease that was considered to be leprous. He died in 1335 after the affliction took a turn for the worse, reputedly not long after his bedroom was struck by lightning (an upper room of the abbey). See also www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Clock
Replicas of Richard of Wallingford's astronomical clock can be seen at St Albans cathedral and in a museum in the town of Wallingford.