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Clocks

A nice example of a pub clock on the Marlborough pub tower in Anderton Road at junction with Montgomery Street. The pub survives as does the clock and it's tower (although I don't think it's now a pub). No expense spared in having a clock face on all 4 sides. Viv.
 

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Communication Workers Union clock at junction of Summer Lane and New Summer Street. Very minimalist clock. Viv.
 

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The Kings Head Clock has been restored and is now back. Not in it's original place but on the diagonally opposite corner i.e Adkins Lane and Bearwood Road junction. (I hope that makes sense!)
It does look splendid and will look even better when the surrounding paving is finished.
rosie.
 
I remember that clock at the "University", loked at it on Tram and bus for nearly 15 years when traveling down the A38, Bristol Road.Paul
 
The Kings Head Clock has been restored and is now back. Not in it's original place but on the diagonally opposite corner i.e Adkins Lane and Bearwood Road junction. (I hope that makes sense!)
It does look splendid and will look even better when the surrounding paving is finished.
rosie.

Thanks Rosie. Just had a look on Streetview but it isn't showing it yet. I can see where you man though as there are still roadwiprks at the junction of Adkins Lane.

Horsencart - think the pigeons are having a laff with that Colmore Row clock! Viv.
 
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Remember everyone, the clocks go BACK this coming Sunday, the last Sunday of October. We'll be changing back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). And for your enjoyment as you'll all be GAINING an extra hour here's a nice snippet below of clock changing history in Birmingham.

Abraham Follet Osler (of glass-making fame, b1808 - d1903) was an enthusiast for chronometry, the scientific measurement of time, and its history. In 1842 he collected funds and set up a standard clock for Birmingham in front of the Birmingham Philosophical Institution in Cannon Street. This astronomical clock became the means by which the city set its own clocks. Then without telling anyone, he gradually changed the timepiece from Birmingham Time to match Greenwich Mean Time so that every local church and private clock then followed GMT. Birmingham was therefore ahead of the rest of the country as other towns were still keeping to their local time.

In 1885 Abraham financed and built the Big Brum clock and bells adjoining the City Art Gallery. It's still the standard timekeeper for the City.

Viv
 
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Very interesting Viv, fascinating. Coventry was once famous for its timepieces also. We still have the watchmaking quarter but they don't make watches anymore. And Big Ben will be temporary silenced. How many clocks do you have in your houses folks? We have eight. I saw 2 interesting clocks I have started to notice them since BHF clocks posts. One in France in a restaurant and one in Cumbria outside farm buildings, brown metal smaller than a football, completely round apart from the face like a signpost or an ornate lamp bracket sticking, then the clock hanging on a chain.
 
A clock in Broad St on a sunny day in the early 1970s photo. Three unusual chimney like structures behind the pub stand out in the old photo. The modern scene shows that the clock has survived even if some of the buildings around it have not. One could almost think a rather unattractive castle has been built behind the clock.
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I had a quick 'clock search' through the forum to see how often that clock appeared in pics ...

A glimpse of the clock in the forum pic below. It seems demolition on the left of the Crown has started and the ornate brewery chimneys clearly show.

A nice peaceful pic of The Crown on Broad Street.
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As you will have noticed there are two images the pub.
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Broad Street the Tow Rope cafe
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The Crown on Broad Street was like this around late 2009





Seen in 2010



Now part of the Reflex 80's Bar.
 
Moving indoors, who remembers these ? A 1960s sunburst clock, a Westclox and a travel alarm clock. I remember having a travel alarm clock as a birthday present!! I loved it. Mine was red leatherette with a smooth folding mechanism. Don't know what inspired the gift - maybe my mum expected me to do a lot of travelling. My aunt had a sunburst clock and was regarded as a thoroughly modern homemaker. It had a loud tick. Viv.

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I see no one has mentioned the very ornate clock that once stood in the Market Hall affectionately known to some as Percy's clock for the reason set out below. The two photos attached are one in it's original position in the Imperial Arcade and another over the Market Hall offices in the Bull Ring.

The clock that stood above the old market offices in the Bull Ring until it was bombed on the night of 25/26 August 1940 was affectionately known as “Percy’s Clock”.

The clock was built in 1883 by W. Potts of Leeds and was originally placed in the Imperial Arcade in Dale End. The dial was 5ft across and had an area of 18 sq ft. the four animate figures represented the Earl of Warwick, his wife, a retainer and a Saracen. The two inner larger figures were seven and a half feet tall.

In 1936 Percy Shurmer insisted that the clock which had not worked for about 20 years was repaired and moved to the Market Hall. So it was repaired, and renovated and duly installed above the market offices.

As stated it was bombed out of existence some four years later. At the time Percy demanded that after the war a similar type clock in the German city of Munich should be taken to replace it saying “They knocked ours to bits, lets have theirs to square it up”.
 

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I never saw Percy's clock, but if I had I know I'd have been fascinated by those figures around it. Would have enjoyed waiting for the figures to move. Must have fascinated many children tagging along with parents through the Market Hall. Hadn't fully appreciated the size of it. Looks almost as if the Market Office could barely support the weight of it.

Rosie and Nico - never heard of a 'grandmother' clock. We never had any heirlooms like that in our house. It wouldn't have been because there weren't any in the family, but my mum wouldn't have antiques in the house. She was like that all her life, always liked 'new' stuff. But one slight concession she made was a modern version of one of those clocks that sat under a glass done with swinging pendulums. The pendulums were hypnotic. For some reason these clocks became popular again in the 1970s.

Nico love the sound of your pea green clock. Sounds like a one-off. Viv.
 
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I never saw Percy's clock, but if I had I know I'd have been fascinated by those figures around it. Would have enjoyed waiting for the figures to move. Must have fascinated many children tagging along with parents through the Market Hall. Hadn't fully appreciated the size of it. Looks almost as if the Market Office could barely support the weight of it.

Rosie and Nico - never heard of a 'grandmother' clock. We never had any heirlooms like that in our house. It wouldn't have been because there weren't any in the family, but my mum wouldn't have antiques in the house. She was like that all her life, always liked 'new' stuff. But one slight concession she made was a modern version of one of those clocks that sat under a glass done with swinging pendulums. The pendulums were hypnotic. For some reason these clocks became popular again in the 1970s.

Nico love the sound of your pea green clock. Sounds like a one-off. Viv.

Thanks Viv, the pea green clock was very early 50's. My aunt's grandmother clock was on the wall, about 3 feet long or more about 2 feet wide with a big face and roman numerals, it came from the boys' home they used to run as she called it it wasn't actually an orphanage. Wish I still had the pea green one. We didn't have a lot of anything really just useful things not like now.
 
We can't discuss clocks without talking about sundials can we? This is a beauty at St. Mary and St. Margaret's Church in Castle Bromwich. It's been restored, incredibly they found an earlier dial underneath the later one.
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And here's the story of its restoration from www.buildingconservation.com


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Viv.
 
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​Might have been posted before
 

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An unassuming clock in Easy Row but it was on the offices of the 'National Time Recorder Co' who made clocks which many of us probably looked at probably twice a day as we clocked in and out of factories and offices.
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Three clocks all connected to New Street Station, one at the front on the façade of the Queens Hotel, one on the walkway through the station, and one at the rear of the station though you will have to be of a certain age to remember any of them. Just looking at the one on Station Street, wasn't the back end of New Street Station a bit of a mess?
 

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