Holyhead

On a very windy and wet day, Holyhead, on an island off an island off the mainland of Wales, feels like the end of the world. The town grew larger when it bacame a port for ferries to Ireland, a function it still has today.

The harbour is the reason for our first clock. Its expansion in 1880 was commemorated by a cast iron clock tower, with its explanatory plaque.

The clock was relocated in November 1990 to the southern end of the station in what is in effect a staff car park, but it was originally sited at the other end by the harbour.

The clock is by Joyce, and is featured on page 213 of Joyce of Whitchurch by Steve and Darlah Thomas.

Even in the wimdy and damp conditions, the clock tower looks impressive with its sturdy design and black and white decoration.

Clock number two is at Victoria Place, The official website (www.holyhead.com) shows a picture of the building in its prime, noting that "The Mayor of Holyhead, Councillor Jeff Evans, officially opened Holyhead's new clock and public space development known as Victoria Place at 12.00 am on Tuesday 1st June 1999". 

A quartter of a century on and the building no longer seems to be in use. Whilst the clock face still looks in good condition, the clock itself has stopped at 6.32.

The Market Hall is still very much in use. However, this too was for a long time a derelict building, and has only recently been refurbished and re-purposed as a community hub.

The Market Hall, now Grade II listed, was built in 1855 by the builder J. Edwards Thomas, as commemorated in the stonework around the clock.

One of the joys of clock spotting is that they turn up in unexpected places. Our next example is on what is the back of the Piranha Club on Boston Street.

Whilst piranhas are not fish that you would normally associate with the area, a news story on North Wales Live from August 2009 has the headline "Anglesey nightclub blasted for keeping piranhas". The fish were installed in tank in the club, and may still be there.

The club is opposite the harbour, which is in a secure area for port traffic only. There are two visible clocks, the first of which is on this set of dock buildings:

The second is on the harbour office built in 1821 on Salt Island. The weather was really closing in at this point reducing the visibility, and hence apologies for the very poor quality pictures of this clock.

More North Wales coastal town clocks to come.

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.

                                      

                                            

The building was extended in 1907 to incorporate a Carnegie library.

Our fifth and final clock in Rhyl is on the top of this building on the junction of Water Street and Crescent Road.

This is now a tattoo studio, but was clearly once an important building in the town (no disrepect to tattooists).

The clock is obviously not being maintained, with the time fixed at 12 o'clock and a piece missing from the centre of the face.

More North Wales coastal towns to come.