For Norwich’s Community, the Bell Tolls

It takes a town to make a clock chime. This is especially true when it comes to the repair of the Norwich Congregational Church, first reported on in Demo Sofronas’ My newsletter “about Norwich” Substack in his article “The clock was ticking and now the Bell is ringing once again also.” Over seven months, through a set of small-town connections, including a police officer, an award-winning clockmaker, a church caretaker, and a clock winding team, the bells in Norwich ring once more.

Kimo Griggs and Ron Nollet, a tool and die maker and clockmaker.

It started with a bit of curiosity from Norwich resident Kimo Griggs. Though he’s “not a clock repair person,” he’s always been “handy” and over the years has fixed several “machine tools, mechanisms, and wind-up toys.” He also has an interest in clocks, owning several that he’s brought to a clockmaker to have repaired. Because of these aspects, Griggs has always wondered about the clock at Norwich Congregational Church. One day last year, he brought it up to Priscilla Vincent during his crossing guard duties. By late August of 2025, Vincent connected him with Dan Goulet, the church caretaker, self-described as a “helper.”
When Goulet first introduced Griggs to the clocktower, Goulet remarked on Griggs’ fascination. “Most people don’t know what they’re looking at,” he said. “But he was like a kid on Christmas morning.”

Scoping it all out to find the problem.

Griggs’ passion became a volunteer job in September 2025, when he joined the church’s team of winders to help wind the clock. Though it’s an eight-day clock and should only have to be wound once every eight days, the church was moved from Norwich Green to Church Street in 1852, which doesn’t have wells dug around it. This means that the counterweights that operate the clock can no longer descend their full distance. They stop every three to four days, which requires the clock to be wound twice a week. Griggs does the mid-week winding, while another winder, Chipper Ashley, performs the task earlier in the week. Goulet fills in when needed.
Goulet expressed that the task is “quite a chore.” When he was younger, Goulet explained, he “used to be able to wind it with one hand…,” but now it requires two hands and his “shoulder gives out halfway through.” Thus, he and Ashley were happy to have help. Ashley said he’s been winding the clock since the mid-’80s. He agreed with Goulet that the task has gotten harder as he’s aged, and he was glad Griggs stepped in.

The gears that make it tick.

Over time, Griggs noticed the bell no longer rang. When he called his regular clock repair contact, though, he wasn’t interested. Griggs explained that working on tower clocks like the one at Norwich Congregational Church is niche work, and Ashley elaborated that, although they’ve had people come in the past to make regular repairs, it’s difficult to find consistent help.
As Griggs went weekly to wind the clock, he kept looking at the clock mechanisms, which he thought looked relatively simple. Because of the clock’s nature, the mechanical parts are wholly visible, and by November Grigg had deduced that the bell issue was an alignment problem and could be a simple fix. He brought up the repair proposal to Ashley.
First, the decision was made by the congregation, and then Ashley brought the request to the church council and the Ministry of Building and Finance during the annual meeting in January 2026. “And they were fine with it,” he said. By February 11, he let Griggs know he could proceed.

imo Griggs and Ron Nollet in front of the Norwich Congregational Church.

Back in January, while still waiting for the church’s decision, Griggs was again performing his crossing guard duties. He spoke to Norwich police officer Mike Rebentisch, who himself has a fascination with old clocks. Coincidentally, his stepfather, Ron Nollet, is an award-winning clockmaker.
When Griggs explained his theory of why the clock wouldn’t chime, Nollet visited on March 11 and agreed with Griggs’ assessment. Griggs explained that “all it needed was two washers, really.” He described the process as simple as breathing; he “took some things off, applied a little oil here and there, put the washers on, and Bob’s your uncle, the bell’s back in action.”
Griggs fixed it on March 13, and the bells rang at noon on that day. Though Ashley said the church considered making the clock electrical but “never got around to it,” Griggs said it’s good the church kept the original clock mechanisms, so he could easily fix it.
Preservations like this have helped make the clock a piece of history. In “The Paul Revere Bell Rings again and again but How?…”, another post on Sofronas’ Substack, he recounts that the Norwich Congregational Church bell is a Paul Revere bell, meaning it was formed in the Boston North End bell foundry of Paul Revere. Norwich’s specific bell, Sofronas wrote, is “the earliest in Vermont and the only one cast during Revere’s lifetime.” He further explained that it was “presented to the church in 1817 by Thomas Emerson” and is “one of six Revere bells remaining in Vermont.”
Sometimes, this history makes the church a destination spot. Ashley said every so often the church gets a call from someone out of town interested in the clock. “There’s a group of people out there that are clock aficionados, and they are aware where these clocks are located.”
Goulet also tells a tale of Minnesota visitors, with whom he brought up the clocktower, “and they were just gaga.” Three days later, the church received a note from them, along with King Arthur baked goods, explaining it was the highlight of their trip.
Despite Ashley’s experience that “you have to be physically able to climb through the trapdoor,” he said the view from the clock tower is worth it, especially in the fall. “October is great when the foliage is out, and you stand up in the clocktower…you got a 360-degree view of the hills…it’s pretty neat.”
What’s even neater is that after a few hundred years, the clock continues to tick and chime thanks to the help of several members of the community. Through chance encounters and willing volunteers, the Norwich Congregational Church’s unique clock continues to move forward, and more importantly, still rings.