The mechanism on the Clock, at Wells Cathedral in Somerset, will be set manually for the last time next week, following the retirement of the last member of a family who has maintained it for almost a century.
Experts say the clock, which tracks the sun across the sky and records the stages of the moon, is a marvel of medieval craftsmanship.
Over the past 90 years the clock, the world's oldest continually-working mechanical timepiece, has been wound by five different generations of the Fisher family.
Since 1987, Paul Fisher has been undertaking the exhausting task of spending an hour, three times a week, turning the three 250kg weights about 800 times.
But on Thursday the horologist, 63, announced his retirement as the official “Keeper of the Great Clock of Wells”.
“I'm a bit sad that all these years of history are coming to an end but winding the clock by hand is just so time consuming,” said Mr Fisher, who is also retiring from the family jewellery business.
"I feel very proud and privileged to have wound this magnificent clock and that my family has been involved in such a historic task.”
While he will keep a “watchful eye” on it, his decision will mean that from Monday it will instead be powered by an automatic electric motor.
Mr Fisher’s family took over responsibility in 1919 after his grandfather, Leo Fisher, returned from First World War service.
Read more at The Telegraph
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