East Boldon

 

The clock at East Boldon was spotted from the train on my journey from central Newcastle to Middlesborough, to see the Turner Prize exhibition at MIMA. Its location close to a Metro station meant that it was worth going back to investigate.

 

The clock stands by a garage on the main road. However, it seems to have “major” controversy in 1989 when it was moved to its current site from Black’s Corner, further along the road. The issue seemed to be that the clock was now longer on the bus route, and hence wasn’t an aid to bus drivers to keep on schedule.

 

Other than that I don’t have anything else to say about the clock, and it appeared that this was the only one in the village. So one of the shortest blogs.

Seaham

 

Seaham, a town of about 20,000 people, is just down the coast from Sunderland. Its main development stems from the construction of a port in the 1820s to export coal, but its fame today is based around sea glass. The Londonderry bottle works were opened in 1853, and at their height produced 20 million bottles per year. Waste glass was dumped into the sea, and is now washed up as rounded off sea glass, which is much in demand for use in craft work. On my weekday visit in the middle of the week with drizzly weather there must have been 20 people on the beach looking for it.

 

Although I did collect a few small pieces of sea glass for a friend, my main purpose was of course to hunt out public clocks.

The first clock is on St Johns Church in Blandford Place. This is a Grade II listed building constructed in 1835 – 40.

 

It is one of the relatively few church towers to have clock faces on all four sides.

 

The church and its clock can be seen along the full length of (well what else?) Church Street, which is the main shopping street.

 

The next building was constructed in 1857 as the administrative offices for the Londonderry estate and harbour – the Marquess of Londonderry owning much of the land in the area.

 

The Grade II listed building on North Terrace was also used a s a police station, but has now (surprise, surprise) been converted into residential units and is now known as Marquess Point.

 

Our third and final clock is a more modern one which stands in the middle of a memorial garden for the armed forces.

 

There is not much to say about this clock, other than it has a nice weathervane featuring a crab.

Ashington

 

The reason for the visit to Ashington is that it is the end of a branch line that was re-opened to passenger traffic in December 2024, having been previously closed 60 years before. The town itself (some argue that it is a village) has a population of about 30,000, and grew up around the coal mining industry.

 

The only clock that I found on my visit was on the Town Hall on Station Road. Work on this building began in 1911 and was completed two years later. It was the headquarters of Ashington Urban District Council until local government reorganisation in 1974, and is now the home of Ashington Town Council.

The clock tower was originally on the west side of the building, but was moved to the centre during reconstruction in 1937.

 

The clock itself is by Potts and was set going on 10 February 1912. It 1938 it was fitted with synchronous drive and electrically driven strike [Potts of Leeds by Michael S. Potts – Mayfield Books (2006)].

Swindon - Part 2

 

For part two of our visit to Swindon we start off on a journey heading south from the town centre towards the old town, the town before the railway.

 

The main route south is via Victoria Road, the name reflecting the period when the focus of the town shifted northwards to meet the new railway.

The clock in the Post Office window on Victoria Road is just a run of the mill example, but is recorded here for completeness.

 

The Town Gardens provide some welcome shade from the blistering heat. The gardens are on the site of an old Purbeck limestone quarry, which explains the differently levels which can be found within the site.

The gardens were officially opened in May 1894. It is believed that the bandstand was in place from the start, and hence my go-to bandstand book (Bandstands of Britain by Paul Rabbitts) would suggest that this was manufactured by James Allan Snr & Co at the Elmbank Foundry in Glasgow.

The bandstand was originally topped by just a weathervane, with the current clock a later addition. Restoration of the bandstand was undertaken in 2006.

 

The Arts Centre is on Devizes Road, located in Bradford Hall (built 1900) which was previously a dance venue. It was one of those venues which I knew existed, but came across it by accident, not realising that I was on the right road.

 

The Arts Centre was opened in thus building on 1 September 1956.

 

Deacons the jewellers, which we have already referenced in relation to the football club, is on Wood Street.

The company was founded by George Deacon, a trained clock and watchmaker, in 1848, and is still family-owned. The jewellers became subcontractors to the Great Western Railway.

 

The firm was responsible for supplying Swindon’s first public clock on the Town Hall.

 

The Co-op store in the Old Town is on the corner of High Street and Newport Street.

 

The clock is difficult to see from many angles, and was difficult to photograph in the strong sun.

Christ Church, also known as the Lady on the Hill, was completed in 1851, and is now Grade II listed.

 

We have moved away from the Old Town and to the south-east.  Saint John Paul II is a Polish Catholic church on the junction of Queens Drive (A4259) and Whitbourne Avenue.

 

 It has an almost industrial-looking tower which incorporates a clock on two sides.

 The Sun Inn is in the Coate area of Swindon, located just off the roundabout joining the A4259 and the B4006 – the roundabout is not particular easy to cross on foot.

There has been a building on this site since 1685, but the current one dates from 1937. The local brewer Arkells has owned the pub since 1891.

 

The Morrisons supermarket on Dorcan Way is unlikely to win any prizes for outstanding architectural merit, but it does have the benefit of having a clock.

 

Incidentally, Dorcan Way is derived from Durocornovium, the name of the local Roman settlement.

 We move now to the north of Swindon, with a diversion to St Marys church on the corner of Akers Way and Cheney Manor Road in the Rodbourne area of the town. The church originally dates from the 13^th century.

 

On the way back to the town centre we call into STEAM. Okay, so this is a bit of a cheat as the clocks in STEAM, the railway museum housed in part of the old locomotive works, are not really public ones, but they would have been at one time.

 

More importantly it gives me the opportunity to include a picture of the GWR King class locomotive King George V aka KGV. This has been an iconic locomotive for me since childhood, and it is the first time I have actually seen it. The bell on the front of the loco is a legacy of its trip to the United States (in 1927 to attend the centenary of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad). [If you look carefully there is a clock to the right of the picture].