The Day The Clock Stopped

If you walk into Loughborough town centre today, and you look up to the town hall clock, you will be confused: is it really 10 minutes past 5 o’clock? Well, no, and here’s the reason why …

On Wednesday 15th March 2023, at around 3-3.30pm, the HSBC branch in Loughborough Market Place, caught fire, and a substantial portion of the building collapsed. The fire spread to the Town Hall which is next door to the bank, and damage was done to certain areas. I’m assuming that this was when the Town Hall clock stopped - a couple of hours after the fire started. But, of course, this wasn’t the first time the beautiful timepiece had stopped …

Although the Town Hall had been built as the Corn Exchange in 1855, it was later extended, and became the Town Hall. The clock was commissioned in 1879 following a bequest from Basil Edward Farnham of Quorn, for which he left £200, the clock being for the use of the inhabitants, farmers and others, in recognition of the kindness shown to him for the many years he represented them as member of parliament for the northern division of the county of Leicester.

The clock was to be illuminated, but there was much discussion about the ownership of the clock, and who would pay to light it up! The clock was owned by the Town Hall Company, but it was the Loughborough Local Board who had been requested to pay for the gas to light up the clock.

The clock was made by George and Francis Cope who started a clockmaking business near Canning Circus in Nottingham in 1845. They – and the later generations of the family - made many types of clocks, some of which can still be seen today, like the tower clocks, a courtoom clock for the Galleries of justice, a large grandfather clock which is possibly still in Yate’s Wine Lodge in Nottingham, a wall-mounted clock in an auctioneers in Radford, the clock on the Nottingham University’s Trent Building, one on West Bridgford Grammar School building, as well as the one on the impressive council buildings in the centre of Nottingham, which was constructed in 1928. Incidentally, the bells for the latter were cast at none other than Taylors, Loughborough’s own bellfoundry. Nowadays, the firm of clockmakers is trading as a jewellers.

So, in the week leading up to 28th February 1880, Loughborough’s Town Hall clock was installed and set to work. The clock is described thus, in the ‘Hinckley News’ of 28th February 1880:

“The main wheel is 14 inches in diameter, and all the others correspond. It is fitted with Sir E. Beckett’s new double three-legged gravity escapement, and has a compensated pendulum and maintaining power to keep it going while it is being wound up. The pendulum weighs over a hundredweight, and the distinctive features of the escapement is that the pendulum does part of the work itself, and is not embraced as other escapements are by a crutch or a fork, but hangs independently, and the power to propel it is obtained by the falling to the centre of the gravity arms. Each arm after it has been discharged by the pendulum, falls with the pendulum to the centre, and after it has lifted the other arm, the train then lifts it ready to be discharged by the pendulum, which is a second and a quarter one.

The whole of the wheels are made of the best brass. The striking part has a main wheel, 14 inches in diameter, and the barrels for the cord to be wound on are made of iron. The hammer weighs 28lbs, and is lifted six inches high from cams. Wire ropes and iron pulleys are used and all the clock works are mounted in strong cast iron frames, which are cast solid, and are so arranged that any wheel may be taken out and dismantled without disturbing the rest. The dials are over 5ft 6in in diameter, and are fitted at an angle, one side facing to the Market Place, and the other to Ward’s End.

The outer circle is filled in with white opal glass, and the centre is of half-inch plate glass ground on one side. The hands are made of copper and gilt. Provision has also been made for illuminating the clock with gas, and a mechanical arrangement for lighting the same has been added.”

The article goes on to describe the bell:

“The bell, which is hung in a small turret above the clock has been cast by our eminent local firm of bell founders, Messrs. John Taylor and Co., and possess a very clear and mellow tone, the note struck by it being C. It is 2ft 8in in diameter and weighs 6cwt. 3aqrs. 3lbs. Besides the name of the founder, and the year in which it was cast, the bell bears the following inscription: ‘This bell and clock the gift of the late E. B. Farnham, of Quorndon House, M.P. for North Leicestershire, 1837 to 1859.’ The bell has been struck several times during the past few days, and its sound can be heard at a considerable distance.”

Interestingly, in later years, Miss Ada Annie Stubbs, daughter of Frederick Stubbs, jeweller and watch and clockmaker of Loughborough, regularly winds the Town Hall clock, and checks its accuracy every morning at 7am when she listens to the news broadcast. In the summer of 1956, the clock was overhauled by a Nottingham Company (I do not know if it was the same company as had made the clock originally), but on 26th January 1957, Miss Stubbs was worried that the clock had fallen silent, so she rushed to the Town Hall from her home on Leicester Road, to set if going again. Apparently, the clock had stopped just before 11pm the night before, but Miss Stubbs was only able to get it working again for about 30 minutes. The Nottingham company was called out again to sort it out. Miss Stubbs died in 1968, and more recently the clock’s mechanism was replaced so it no longer needs to be wound up to work.

Since that time, the clock has undergone further refurbishment, for example in 1980, and again in 2012 it stopped working. This time, it was out of action for six years, finally ringing out again in 2018, which it had continued to do until that fateful day last March. Here’s hoping it will once again be repaired and ring out across the town centre.        

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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