Clock This: Rhyl

Rhyl can be found on the North Wales coast (but probably only if you are looking), which is an area which I have never explored before. The town is a fairly typical seaside resort, which is clearly well past its original heyday but has some some more recent investment to counter the decline. The size of the railway station shows that the town once catered for large influxes of train passengers.

For me, the two most historically interesting facts about the town are that in once had a pier, and it had the world's first passenger hovercraft service. The pier was opened in 1867 and was 718 metres long. Like so many piers it had a troubled history with collisions from ships, fire and storm damage. It was closed in 1966 and demolished in 1973.The hovercraft service operated from the beach and made the 15 mile journey to Wallasey. It was really just a test service to try out the viability of hovercraft services, and only operated from July to September 1962.

And so now onto the clocks.

Our first horological encounter is on leaving the station. The clock stands at the edge of a new bus interchange area immediately outside of the station.

The base of the clock has bilingual plaques on all four sides.

And on the column there is a plaque which states that the clock dates from 1995, with funding sources shown in English and Welsh.

Heading straight for the coast, the way is guided by the town's main clock tower. This stands in a roundabout which forms the junction between High Street, West Parade and East Parade.

The clock tower was built in 1948 and originally stood on the promenade, but was moved to this new location in the 1990s.

The roundabout location with its nice planting means that it is difficult to see the plaque, which reads This clock tower was presented to the town of Rhyl by Councillor and Mrs R L Davies December 1948.

There are now plans to redesign the road layout so that the tower will no longer be marooned on a roundabout, so in future in may be easier to read this plaque.

You will note from the picture below that consistent time is not shown across its four faces.

The church of St Thomas sits at the junction of Russell Road and Bath Street.

This Grade II listed church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and completed in 1869, although the tower followed later in 1874.

The clock is by Joyce and was installed in 1877, and the intricate clock face was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott ("Joyce of Whitchurch - Clockmakers 1690 - 1965 by Steve & Darlah Thomas")

Rhyl Town Hall, on Russell Road, is also Grade II listed and dates from 1876. This means that two major clocks were installed within sight of each other on the same road within the space of less than two years.