Leyland Clock, Fawcett Forest | ||
Leyland Clock | ||
site name:- | road, Kendal to Shap | |
civil parish:- | Fawcett Forest (formerly Westmorland) | |
county:- | Cumbria | |
locality type:- | clock tower | |
locality type:- | clock | |
coordinates:- | NY55180346 (estimate) | |
1Km square:- | NY5503 | |
10Km square:- | NY50 | |
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BOH30.jpg "LEYLAND MOTORS FOR ALL TIME" (taken 24.10.2007) BYC78.jpg (taken 11.4.2013) |
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hearsay:- |
The Leyland Clock was put up about 1931 as an advertisement for Leyland Motors. It
was one of five in England: top of Shap; halfway between Catterick and Boroughbridge;
The Bath Road, 3 mile E of Calne; the London Basingstoke road, 39 miles from London,
7 from Basingstoke; the Great North Road, 70 miles from London. |
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A farmer down the road to the south was paid to wind it, and it was serviced by William
Potts of Leeds. On one early visit Mr Potts borrowed a ladder from Hollowgate Farm,
a closer farm down the road, and brought it back broken. Thomas Huck, the farmer,
suggested that next time Mr Potts could get a ladder from the farmer they paid. But
the paid winder, £2 per annum, was soon Thomas Huck at Hollowgate. The job of winding
the clock once a week was later done by Lenore, his daughter, who still lives at Hollowgate,
now Mrs Thomas Knowles. The clock kept good time, except when snow was blown into
the works. |
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After the motorway was built the clock was no longer an effective advertisment, and
eventually was taken down and stored at Gilkes's engineering works, Kendal. It was
refurbished and re-erected at the Brewery Arts Centre, unveiled by Lenore, who was
fetched to Kendal in a Rolls Royce. The arts centre have not been good at keeping
it going. Now (2007) The Steam Fair at Flookburgh has given £2500 to repair the clock,
presented to Lenore and the Brewery Art Centre. So it might be going again soon. |
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Knowles, Lenore: 26.9.2007: (conversation) |
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