OneGuyFromBarlick

THE PUBLIC CLOCK

When the ringing of bells to mark the liturgy of the hours was banned in England as part of the Reformation the public lost a useful measure of time and domestic clocks, though they existed, were only for the very rich. There was, in modern terms, a gap in the market. Until quite recently it was thought that clocks like those at Salisbury Cathedral and Wells were installed in the 14th century but doubt has been cast on this and now it is thought that the earliest true clocks that controlled either the striking of bells on the hour or clock faces on church towers are more likely to date from the 16th century, coinciding with the ban on bell-ringing. The main reason for them was to signal the times of church services but as they became more common they were increasingly seen as public time-measuring devices. Bear in mind that there was no standard time and so no two clocks agreed with each other.
In 1839 the Great Western Railway installed the first comprehensive electric telegraph system and one of its uses was to give accurate time checks to stations along the line. This was essential as local time varied from station to station and this meant that trains could not be accurately scheduled. The Telegraph Act of 1869 gave the General Post Office a monopoly of services replacing the private companies that were springing up and once again, in addition to messages, an accurate time signal based on Greenwich Observatory could be sent to all post offices which had a public clock and this became a convenient and accurate time check for the man in the street. There was only one problem, the two services were not synchronised and we know from the minute books of the Calf Hall Shed Company in December 1895 that they had a problem because the post office clock used by the workers was running behind the railway clock which was used by the Manchester Man to set his watch and who then passed the 'correct' time on to the engineer, Mr Sneath. The consequence was that officially all the workers were late each morning. Mr Sneath was instructed to use post office time.
The thing that amuses me about this is that it demonstrates how important time-keeping was, “punctuality was the politeness of princes and the courtesy of kings”. These days we all have access to quartz timepieces that would have taken up two rooms in Manchester University in 1950 but punctuality seems to have slipped down the order of precedence. This is probably me betraying my age but the world ran much better in the days when all the weavers were at their looms when I started the engine at Bancroft Mill. In the days before WW2 when tramp weavers stood in the warehouse ready to take the looms off anyone who was late, time-keeping was a serious matter and this habit survived as long as the mills.





The engine house clock at Bancroft Shed

I’m not sure if some of “the good old days” were in fact all that good. I remember my father saying how degrading it was to see people lined up hoping that fellow weavers would be late for work. Often these poor people were too ill to work but by necessity had to work just to survive.

As you pointed out before it was often the mill owners who provided the first public clocks. Up to recent times one of the landmarks in Burnley was “Slater’s Clock”.. Installed by George Slater in 1863 on his mill in Sandygate. This mill was subsequently known as “The Clock Tower Mill.” In effect the first public clock in Burnley. George Slater came originally from Barlick working as a stonemason on the Leeds to Liverpool canal

On a different note.

A steady person was formerly said to be “Like Colne Clock” ie: always at one. This saying arose from the fact that the clock oftener stood than went, on which account it was thought expedient to introduce a rival, commonly known as “Lady Betty’s Clock” The saying however, has lost its force, for at the present day the church clock has outlived its rival, and goes remarkably well.

Annals and Stories of Colne and neighbourhood. By J Carr (1878).

I’m not sure whether “Lady Betty’s Clock” preceded the “Ivegate Clock” (see Sundials) or was in fact a different clock altogether.
The “Church Clock” has now also gone!

Bumped and I am forced to reflect that we have not only lost the post office clock but its successor on the Council office and now its successor on top of the Ronald Searle bus shelter. We are assured that the latter is 'being repaired'.

Kelbrook Church clock is away for repair. There are plans for a village celebration to mark it's return.

That's nice to hear Wendy. Johnny Pickles reckoned it was a good clock and unusual in that it had four faces.

Made by Thomas Cooke of York, a scientific instrument maker.

Stanley wrote: ↑12 Sep 2021, 04:20 Bumped and I am forced to reflect that we have not only lost the post office clock but its successor on the Council office and now its successor on top of the Ronald Searle bus shelter. We are assured that the latter is 'being repaired'.

There's still one left, the millennium clock in the town square.

And that was poorly for a year after a power outage.

Bumped again.
At the moment we have two healthy clocks, one on the bus shelter and one in Town Square.

We still have two healthy clocks!