Time has never stood still with in changing face
OLD postcards of Cheltenham show the town clock, which protruded from the upper wall of a building in High Street.
It was made by a local clockmaker named John Denne and erected in 1828, but disappeared in 1958 when the supporting beam became unsafe.
Today the town’s most famous clock is found in Regent Arcade.
Officially unveiled this week in January 1987, the three ton Wishing Fish Clock was designed by author/artist Kit Williams, who lives in Stroud and the structural parts were built by Michael Harding of the Cheltenham horological firm Sinclair Harding and Co.
If you remember the Moorend Park Hotel at Charlton Kings, a Bavarian hunting lodge of a building that was wickedly demolished about 40 years ago, you may recall the long case clock that stood in the entrance hall with “W Davies. Cheltenham” inscribed on the face.
W Davies was in business in Winchcombe Street in the 1840s and was a furniture maker, not a clockmaker.
Like many of his fellow tradesmen, Mr Davies made clock cases and installed mechanical parts which could be bought in kit form from various Birmingham manufacturers.
The faces were painted, often with Biblical scenes, and offered for sale.
One of Gloucester’s most timely features is the ingenious clock that stands at first floor level above G A Baker & Sons in Southgate Street.
The shop was established on this site in 1882, but was razed to the ground and rebuilt in 1904 which was when the clock appeared.
The Gloucester Journal of November 26, 1904 gave this description.
“On the front of the shop is a clock made by Niehus Brothers of Bristol. It has five striking jacks representing England (John Bull) sounding note ‘A’; Ireland (Irish girl) note ‘B’; Scotland (The Cock of the North) note ‘D’; Wales (Welsh girl) note ‘G’ and Father Time to strike the hours on note ‘D’ an octave below the quarters. The clock has a Graham dead-beat escapement and is extremely accurate”.
Prior to the Second World War the
clock of St Nicholas’s church in Westgate Street chimed Abide With Me on the hour, every hour.
A gent named Wilton who lived opposite the church had the job of climbing the tower to wind the mechanism each day.
This he did for many years and during his term of office the clock ran like, well, clockwork.
In the late 1930s Mr Wilton retired and handed over the winder’s windlass to his successor.
But without Mr Wilton’s touch, the timer refused to tick and the tetchy timepiece remained out of service.
A landmark in Stroud since 1921 is Sims Clock funded by W T Sims, a grocer and benefactor to the town.
Nailsworth clock tower was funded by public subscription to serve as a war memorial and built between 1951 and 52. It was the work of architect Peter Falconer, best known as a designer of industrial buildings, who lived in Minchinhampton.
The tower, built of Minchinhampton stone, is 30ft high and the clock mechanism was made by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon.
Three bells are housed in the tower, two of them made by Rudhall’s foundry of Gloucester that were originally installed in a demolished local chapel.
These bells were also incorporated into a previous town clock which was housed in a wooden tower overlooking Fountain Street that was described by the poet W H Davies, who lived in Nailsworth as a cross between a windmill and a lighthouse.
Newnham-on-severn’s impressive clock tower was erected by public subscription in 1875. Built of Bath stone, the clock was made by the firm of James W Benson of Ludgate Hill, London who were responsible for many similar turret clocks up and down the country.
Coleford’s Clock Tower was attached to an octagonal church, built in 1821, but when in 1882, this church was considered to be too small for the town’s population, the main building was demolished, leaving only the tower.