LIFE is about to get a lot easier for retired IT security worker-turned-village clock winder Nick Hitchman.

Every other day of the week for the past six years Mr Hitchman has climbed up a rickety 20ft ladder and entered a trap-door into the loft of a chilly 13th Century tower.

Once there, he uses considerable energy to wind-up Oaksey’s archaic Victorian church clock with a crank-handle.

But now 62 year-old Mr Hitchman is about to have an easier time after councillors granted the final £500 required for an“auto-winder” at All Saints Church.

The £4,722 project will at last see a 21st Century mechanism installed in the 800 year-old Grade I listed church – much to Mr Hitchman’s relief.

His laudable act of dedication is beginning to take its toll on aging limbs while inflaming old rugby injuries.

“I’m really pleased we’ve now got enough for the installation,” said Mr Hitchman.

“I floated the idea of a new mechanism at the parish council. It turned into a proposal and now I’m managing the project.”

The clock was bought in 1882 for £76 in memory of the village rector and is an important part of daily life in Oaksey.

Having amassed more £4,000 for the project the parish council applied for a final £500 from Wiltshire Council’s Malmesbury Area Board.

Its grant application said: “Winding the clock involves climbing a 20ft ladder, entering a trapdoor into a loft and using a crank-handle to wind the clock and chime mechanisms.”

It stated that the task required “strenuous physical effort every other day to avoid the chime weights from hitting the floor and stopping the clock.”

It added: “An auto-winder installation will remove the need for hand winding and decommission the heavy weights.”

When installed the new equipment will automate both the winding and chiming and will only require occasional correction from Mr Hitchman and his successors rather than needing adjusting every other day or so.

Apart from the increasing physical strain Mr Hitchman said he enjoyed ensuring that Oaksey’s church clock ticked over.

He said: “It couldn’t be any more different to working in IT. I think part of what made it interesting is the contrast.”

He felt it was important to keep it accurate to help give a good impression of the village while pupils at Oaskey School used it to mark the start and end of their break time.

He added: “Every now and then it chimes at the wrong time and I’ve been known to get up a two or three in the morning to get up there and reset it.”