Public Clocks in Coventry

An item under "Buses and public transport" set me wondering about this subject. It was the unusual position and fixture of that one on the roof of the cafe in Pool Meadow. Coventry was a town of watch and clock makers, and before the advent of cheap digital etc, there was obviously a need for public display of time. I can remember St Johns Church had one, there is that outstanding one in the Burges and I noticed a similar one in a recent photo of war damaged Broadgate, and I remember my grandfather kept a chunk of glass from the Market Hall clock that blew out in a gale in 18** something or other, and I also noticed there was a thread on bus stop clocks. But where did they come from, how did they emanate, were they part of town planning or official direction, or were they a sort of advert or just a public spirited adornment to a building? Who was responsible for them and who wound them and advanced and retarded them in summer and winter times? I would guess the present day Godiva revolving clock is serviced by a man from the City Engineers Dept. Did/does St Johns Church clock strike? PS I still use a Grandfather Clock.

Great post, Roger Here's the one in Burges and St John's Church and another one for your list, at the Council House

A century or so ago one was not allowed to be one minute late for work or such, and people could not afford watches so it is my belief that clocks were put in prominent places for the public to know the time. Trains and trams ran on time. Time was more important then than now.

Post copied from topic Corporation Street on 4th Jun 2020 12:53 pm

Prof and another clock. It makes we wonder just how many clocks there were round the city at that time (scuse the pun). Could it have been because of the clock/watchmaking industry influence? I always remembered the Gas Showrooms as we called it then, must have been going upstairs to eat - no burgers up there though. PS. And were they all synchronized to show the same time?

Hi Dreamtime - public clocks would have been very important in the days before we could all afford a wristwatch (or a fancy mobile phone that's also clever enough to tell us the time!). The better-off had fob watches in their jacket pockets (I remember my granddad having one), but the poorer members of society would have to rely on roosters, church bells or public clocks - or for factory workers, the factory hooter (I remember the GEC's Copsewood "reminder"!). It would have been seen as a valuable public service for a business to put a clock on their premises. Maybe Kaga has an anecdote on this...

Yes JW, I did a post about it earlier, God knows where, that the clocks were for the workers, for you were turned away from a factory if late. They mostly were high, to be seen easily.

Dreamtime, according to the newspaper in the early 20th century some places of business paid a small fee and could connect to the Market Clock Tower by telephone and could hear the actual time struck. They would call about 2 minutes before the hour and stayed on the line until the hour struck. I don't know when this stopped but an article on 29th September 1954 when the speaking clock first became available to telephone subscribers on most Coventry exchanges it mentions that system as being in use 30 years before. Before the speaking clock you would ring the exchange and they would give you the time off the exchange clock which was only accurate to about 30 seconds.

The Co-op clock that was in Corporation Street.

H Samuel clock, Trinity Street.

The demolition of Coventry Point has revealed this disused clock on what was (when I moved to Coventry) the Gas Showroom.

Does anyone know what happened to that H Samuel clock?

Neil, you have taken those very words out of my mouth. I don't want to hear the worst.