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Snow Hill Clock - Platform 7

M

malvern

Guest
Remember the beautiful clock on platform 7? In the mid to late 60s I spent every weekend searching through Snow Hill (oh the things I found) including the subway and former Hotel. One weekend my pal came with me and we climbed up and both got inside the back of that clock. A few years later it was sold to a chap who had met his future wife beneath it! I have always wondered what became of that clock--its out there somewhere, anyone know?

I notice on the Snow Hill post that a couple of posters worked at Snow Hill so does anyone remember Cyril Hall, he worked in the Signal & Telegraph department in the 50/60s and he also had a fruit and vegetable shop opposite the College Arms on the Stratford Road, Cyril arranged for me to spend an evening on the footplate of the Pliot, a Tyesley Hall. I even got to drive it! Imagine me, a 12 year old schoolboy in short trousers, driving a Hall in Snow Hill station--still cant belive it!
 
malvern said:
Remember the beautiful clock on platform 7? In the mid to late 60s I spent every weekend searching through Snow Hill (oh the things I found) including the subway and former Hotel. One weekend my pal came with me and we climbed up and both got inside the back of that clock. A few years later it was sold to a chap who had met his future wife beneath it! I have always wondered what became of that clock--its out there somewhere, anyone know?

I notice on the Snow Hill post that a couple of posters worked at Snow Hill so does anyone remember Cyril Hall, he worked in the Signal & Telegraph department in the 50/60s and he also had a fruit and vegetable shop opposite the College Arms on the Stratford Road, Cyril arranged for me to spend an evening on the footplate of the Pliot, a Tyesley Hall. I even got to drive it! Imagine me, a 12 year old schoolboy in short trousers, driving a Hall in Snow Hill station--still cant belive it!
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There is athread on Snowhill under HISTORY you will find it here with a picture of the Clock
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1413&highlight=snowhill+station&page=2
 
Malvern,
In the days before everyone was paranoid about security, a lot of things used to happen. A friend of mine and fellow tramway enthusiast was surprised at the school assembly one morning when the headmaster got to the public warnings section and said "I don't mind you boys using your intitiative to practise new skills, but I will not have you driving trams down Bristol Road in school uniform". That was in the late 1940s, but I won't say which school it was.
Peter
 
You just reminded me a friend let me drive the Gatwick Express from Clapham Junction to Gatwick !!!! and back again!!!!! that was about 1992
 
I remember that on the same platform 7 there was a machine on which you could punch your name out on a tin strip. I cant imagine how many hours I spent on that machine as a lad. Does anyone else remember it? It had a clock-like face with a huge single finger pointing at each letter/number. I dont remember seeing another one at other stations I visited in my years as a train spotter.
 
Hi Dave - You have brought back a memory from my dim and distant past. Yes I do remember stamping out my name on that machine, I had forgotten all about that. I used to love it, and getting the strip with the print on it. Fantastic. It seemed to me as a child that we always used to start out holidays by train from Snow Hill in the late 40's/early 50's, and got so exited when the train came in, pouring out smoke, ready to take us to the seaside.

Judy
 
Apologies Malvern! To me as a child it was smoke, and I loved the smell of the trains, but you are correct of course, it was steam :rolleyes: There was nothing like those trains was there? We do have a steam train not far from where I live, it goes from Paignton to Kingswear (Devon). Not a patch on those journeys of the past that I remember though.

Judy
 
Judy, that was tounge in cheek, you see the GWR which became BR (W) were always fiercly competitive with other regions and always believed they were the superior company/region. Cleanliness was the one thing that shewed the difference.(see I am even spelling that the GWR way) The GWR were of course far superior in every way. (There, that ought to wind the LMS fans up)
 
I'm keeping out of any arguments between you train buffs :D

And, I remember meeting boyfriends under the Snow Hill Station clock in the booking office ;)
 
Alf
Thanks for that, I have had a look through that thread and can only see that someone reckons a school bought the clock.

I am surprised no one remembers the clock being sold because it made the TV and papers at the time and it was definately sold to some wealthy business man who met his wife beneath it --obviously it may have well be sold on by now. -- would love to now where is is!
 
I used to love going train spotting at Snow Hill.
Regarding the clocks,according to Salute to Snow Hill by the late Derek Harrison (sometimes known as 'Mr.Snow Hill'!),the clock on platform 7 was sold for £125 and went to a farm somewhere in Staffordshire,and the booking hall clock went to a school in Wolverhampton.
 
I have these two books signed by my late friend Derek Harrison.
If anyone is interested, I will send them (post free) to the first person to donate £10 to the forum and PM's me their address.
 
I found this photo at a railway collectors fair a while ago which shows the clock on platform 7,c1954/5.In those days it was adorned (if you can call it that!) with the 'Craven A' advert.
 

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hi i am new to this site , but i am looking for information on the clocks in snowhill station., from when it was first built, my great great grandad ,john walker made the clock on the outside of snowhill,and the one in the booking hall, not sure if he
made the one on platform seven. do you know what name was on the face of this clock.?
 
I think this is the booking in clock. Dek
 

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This must be a fairly early pic of the interior of the station. Max
 

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thanks mikejee for the info . i know for sure that John Walker made the clock in the booking hall, and the one on the outside of the building.
my grandmother .maiden name Doris francis Walker told me before she died in 1994 at the ripe old age of 95 that her great grandad John Walker
had made the clock on the outside of the building, and wanted to find out about the other clocks.
there were so many questions you should ask your granparents and never think at the time, and then its all too late . thanks again
 
Wonderful Richie , worth waiting for Excellent thank you. Max
 
Earlier in the thread people were asking what became of the clock at Snow hill. I have just come across an article from the Mercury in 1977 which states that it was then at the Wightwick Hall School for Physically Handicapped Children, Wolverhampton, with a blurred picture, below. judging by the (poor) view from the road on streetview at https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...d=-zKY-70Yy2bu6atSadzQmw&cbp=12,253.85,,2,-10 it is still there
Mike

Wightwick_Hall_school.jpg
 
davidl said:
hi i am new to this site , but i am looking for information on the clocks in snowhill station., from when it was first built, my great great grandad ,john walker made the clock on the outside of snowhill,and the one in the booking hall, not sure if he
made the one on platform seven. do you know what name was on the face of this clock.?
Click to expand...

I'm coming in very late on this, but have been searching the whereabouts of the booking hall clock for years!!

Though the above states it was made by John Walker (and that indeed was the name on the face of it when it was erected), it would appear that the casing was actually made by my great-grandfather's business ("William Lerwill"). Members of the family were always told "that's a Lerwill Clock" when going through Snow Hill station.

William Lerwill was in business as a clockcase maker from the 1860s until ca 1923 when he retired (aged 80) and sold the business to another company who moved it to Oldham. He was based latterly at Milk Street in Digbeth and sold many clocks in the old Market Hall. Any information about his clocks would be gratefully received - he was particularly good at making Eagle wall-clocks.
 
oldMohawk said:
There is a nice photo of the clock on Platform 7 here.
https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh1129.htm
I used to hang around the station entrance with a group after ice skating. It always seemed a somewhat more 'refined' station compared to New Street - but it was GWR...
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I've heard that before, and although I didn't get to experience either station back in the 1950's or 60's, I can see from old pictures that Snow Hill had better facilities. It should be considered that that incarnation of Snow Hill had opened in 1912 so the station wasn't that old, whereas New Street dated from the 1850's and 1880's and hadn't changed much by the 1960, apart from the loss of the LNWR roof.
 
G'Day Harbornite76 we were there in Snow hill trying to get a few No's that the other kids couldn't get, ;)
it was always the Bluebird diesel rail car, but the memory is...... well you know, thanks anyway!
 
If you look at (black & white) photos of the railcar and the Blue Pullman from the front they do look similar
 
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