Old Father Time is a weather vane at Lord's Cricket Ground, London, in the shape of Father Time removing the bails from a wicket. The weathervane is a total of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall, with the figure of Father Time standing at 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m). It was given to Lord's in 1926 by the architect of the Grandstand, Sir Herbert Baker.
Old Father Time was originally located atop the old Grand Stand. It was wrenched from its perch during the Blitz, when it became entangled in the steel cable of a barrage balloon, but was repaired and returned to its previous position. In 1992 the weather vane was struck by lightning, and the subsequent repairs were featured on children's television programme Blue Peter. Old Father Time was permanently relocated to the Mound Stand in 1996, when the Grand Stand was demolished and rebuilt.
In 1969 Old Father Time became the subject of a poem, Lord's Test, by the Sussex and England cricketer John Snow.
Famous quotes containing the words father and/or time:
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And practice all that we believe:
Give us thyself, that we may see
The Father and the Son, by thee.”
—Charlemagne (1559?–1634)
“At about that time I was once sitting at my place and whispering—it was naughty, I know—with my neighbor. Then you, Herr Professor Rudner, got up from your desk, came calmly down the aisle to me: “Did you speak?” and slapped me smack in the face. And I—the fury is inside me to this day—I didn’t hit back. Such were the methods of objectivity.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)