Cheltenham - Part 2

We are now at the junction of Clarence Street and The Royal Crescent. The owners of the nice houses of the crescent not only look out on a bus station, for which I am sure they are truly delighted, but also to a clock on a column.

The old offices of the Cheltenham Gas Company are at the western end of the High Street, and its clock tower is very much a landmark for those approaching the town centre from the west.

The Tesco store is right night to the old gas company offices, and I assume that it was built on what was the gas works itself. This is not a very exciting clock, but it is there and so it is rightly included in this survey.

The next two clocks were a result of a walk along the old railway line going north from the old gas works and then a trip along the roads back into the town centre.

The first stop is at Pittville School on Albert Road.

The current school was founded in 1986, but it uses the earlier buildings of Pate's Grammar School for Girls after the latter re-located.

All Saints church is on All Saints Road, and was one of those lucky random finds on the long walk back to the town centre.

The church was designed by John Middleton and built in 1865 - 1868. It is now Grade I listed.

Trinity church is in Portland Street, to the north of the town centre. It was built in 1820 - 23 to a design by GA Underwood, with subsequent alterations and additions in 1877/78 and 1907. This Grade II* building is constructed out of limestone.

Cheltenham Minster was known until 2013 as St Mary's church. Although the spire is seen from many points around the town centre, it is easy to miss the building itself as access is via a series of narrow alleyways rather than directly from the main thoroughfares.

Cheltenham in 50 Buildings (David Elder - Amberley Publishing (2017)) reckons that this is the oldest building in the town, with arches under the tower dating to 1170. It is Grade I listed.

Christ Church on Malvern Road dates from 1840.

                                        

                                        

The church's website (www.christchurchcheltenham.com) has detailed information on the building, noting that the church was consecrated on 21 January 1840 "by the Bishop of Gloucester in a violent gale", and that the architects were Robert William and Charles Jearrad.

The website also has an excellent section on the clock, including many detailed photographs of the clock mechanism. The clock was made by Henry Weight in 1844.

And talking of weights, the website notes that one fell to the Baptistry floor in 1914, "causing the Church Clerk to run out thinking that a Zeppelin had bombed the church".

Other interesting points from the church's website are that the clock's quarter chimes were stopped in 1850 following complaints from the neighbours, and that the mechanism was converted to automatic electric winding in 1986.

After a string of churches we now come to a commercial premises on Suffolk Road.

The occupier of the building is now Newcombe Residential ("a boutique estate agency located in the highly regarded Suffolk’s area of Cheltenham but servicing the whole of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and beyond."), but the clock would suggest that a previous occupant was Thomas Plant & Co Ltd, College Outfitters.

A quick look in the records shows that the company was founded on 17 March 1894 and is still a going concern.

Looking from Suffolk Street you can see this odd looking tower in the distance. 

This is in fact the tower of the church of St Philip and St James on Grafton Road, and I have learnt that the style is known as a saddleback roof.

The church was consecrated on 1 May 1840 (so only four months after Christ Church), but was expanded in the early 1880s. The tower was added in 1903.

Our final stop on the tour of Cheltenham clocks is the Regent Arcade. I am never a fan of shopping malls as they usually engender feelings in me of "get me out of here", but occasionally there is a reward of an interesting clock.

This is the Wishing Fish clock, designed by Kit Williams (those of us of a certain age will remember him as the author of  Masquerade, the book with its clues to finding the golden hare) and built by Sinclair Harding & Co Ltd. Unfortunately the clock is not currently blowing its bubbles.