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Clocks

The Library demolition has made it possible to see the clock as it should be seen. Never really looked at this clock before, only briefly when passing underneath it. But it has some nice detail like the pediments. And the clock face is set into the feature almost as though it's a window. Thanks for posting the new view Ell. Viv.
 
No problem Viv.

Was it ever possible to see it up that high, or higher before the 1960s? If any building on Broad Street back then had a view.
 
I think when I worked in Alpha Tower - 24th floor - I could see it from there but not very clearly. Viv.
 
During a mid-day break from Handsworth Tech in 1949 I went in Handsworth Park and remember looking at the clock on the Park Keeper's Lodge shown in this Keith Berry pic dated 2007. The lodge had become somewhat run down by the 1970s but appears to have been restored.
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The clock on St Barnabas Church in Erdington High Street. A year after this photo was taken most of the church was burnt down.
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There was once a very smart timepiece on the corner of Villa Road and Hamstead Road. But sadly all that remains is one of the bars fixing it to the building. Viv.
 

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The clock face on St Agatha's Church, Stratford Road, was almost shook off the tower during the WW2 bombing ....
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But it's a survivor and suitably repaired is still there today ....
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Well another part of my past life pops up! Those bombed buildings on the corners of Mole St. Merrick & Heath( the one nearest the church) was cleaned up and went on trading as they were a glazing mob and must have been busy during the war. We used to take the lids off the large putty tins to use as shields against the rubble we used to chuck at each other. The mortar pulled off the exposed internal walls would give a puff of dust which we thought made it look like hand grenade explosions.
If you went into the ruins of that grand house on the opposite corner you had to hold your hand over your throat to protect your juggler from the rats (as big as cats!).
Merrick and Heath were rebuilt in the 1950's with a smart brick frontage and large shop windows where we that when to St. Agatha's would congregate after services. They have done a great job of turning it into that mini market.
Thanks for the pictures and memories Old Mohawk.
 
That is unusual Viv. Looking closely at the house on Streetview I can see two notices which seem to say something about closed circuit tv but not clear enough to be definite. There is cctv fitted so maybe the house is not residential.
Phil
 
The clock wasn't there on 2008 street view when the property was surrounded in scaffolding. It was there in 2012.
Janice
 
Two functional clocks hanging above Central Avenue in the old Market Hall. Not as fancy as Percy's clock mentioned earlier, but doubtless as useful. The first is 1860, the second (which seems to have replaced the 1870's clock) a few years before the Market Hall was bombed in WW2. Viv.

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Was in the bell tower yesterday at St Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter, and took these photos of the inside of the clocks. Part of Birmingham Heritage Week.





 
Was once in a caravan park in Ashburn which was originally a large estate. The bar was in what had been the stables loft and had a clock like this but the drive bar was much longer. The owner said that the time was set correctly by bending the bar just a bit now and again.
Cheers Tim
 
Great photos Ell of a view very rarely seen of the clock (or any clock for that matter). Thanks for posting.

This one - probably long gone by now - graced the walls of Curzon St Station. Nothing glamorous about it must have been an essential part of the day-to-day business of the station. Viv.

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There's nothing fancy about this clock on the corner of Birchall Street and Bradford Street. Unlike the Aston Cross clock with its elaborat ornamentation, this one is very functional. It looks about 1960s but it could be 1920s/30s. Hard to tell but there might be a hint in the fixings which look much earlier than the 1960s to me. Viv.
ART DECO,probably 1930's.
 
Thanks Alan. And for agriculture workers on estates, large houses or their stables often had clocks. I expect they had chimes or striking mechanisms too.

In April this year the clock on Lightwoods House was returned to the pediment, now nicely restored and looking handsome. Extract from the Lightwoods Park site:


Lightwoods House took a step back in time last week as the turret clock returned to the front of the house fully restored and gilded. It has been re-installed in the pediment but won’t be in full working order until all of the electrical works have been completed in the house later on this summer.

The original clock was installed between 1902 and 1903 following the purchase of the park through public subscription and gifted to Birmingham City Council. Messrs Swinden & Sons contributed the clock to Lightwoods House as part of the improvements carried out at that time alongside the addition of the bandstand, fountains and pathways.

Swinden & Sons were watch and clock makers in Birmingham. Francis George Swinden, son of the founder was recorded as the Vicar’s Warden of St Mary’s Church in 1897. The Vicar of St Mary’s Church at this time was Henry Timothy Tilley, husband of Julia Tilley nee Adkins.


The clock has now been fully restored by Smith of Derby, the same company that restored the Kings Head clock that returned to Bearwood last year.

Viv.



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Smith's are working on St. Philips at the moment.
 
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