11 Minutes (Bristol Time)

11 minutes (Bristol time) is an 11-minute slip between time zones, delving into the history of an unusual clock with three hands ticking in the heart of Bristol.

Told from the point of view of the clock itself, the audio project asks the question of what the clock would say if it could tell us all the things it has witnessed from it’s one, unchanging perspective. 11 minutes (Bristol time) weaves together imagined memories, momentous historical events and interviews with tower clock specialist Andrew Nicholls and historian Jeanie Sinclair. Winding back 200 years of history, the audio piece takes us back to an age where time was dictated by the sun and England was a mismatched patchwork of muddled time zones. We take stop at the industrial revolution, learning how super quick train travel led the adoption of a universal time zone, right up to a modern day Bristol, a city confronting it’s shameful past. Following the soporific, metronomic tick of the clock and fusing it with chugging rhythm of a Victorian railway, 11 minutes (Bristol time) hurtles through an epic true story, packed with fascinating histories and poetic visions of a truly unique artefact.

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Clock Voice:  Anne Mowbray

Tower Clock Specialist:  Andrew Nicholls 

Historian:  Jeanie Sinclair 

Producer:  Jay Auborn

Sound Design:  Máté Moldován

Composer:  John Matthias

Script Editor:  Emmie Alderson

Executive Producer: Steve Gear 

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11 minutes (Bristol Time) is a New Creatives audio project produced by Calling The Shots and supported by Arts Council England & BBC Arts. It premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music in 2021

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