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)].