Morecambe's iconic Clock Tower will tell the right time... but not just yet

By Michelle Blade
Published 9th May 2023, 15:12 BST
Updated 10th May 2023, 10:01 BST
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now
Time isn’t ticking for the iconic Morecambe Clock Tower which has had its clock faces reinstalled after months of repairs.

Last week the Lancaster Guardian reported that the clock faces were being put back into the clock tower but learned the clocks are not currently working and the hands are stuck at 12pm.

Lancaster City Council gave the go-ahead for £12,000 worth of repairs in February to be done by the Cumbria Clock Company.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

An engineer from the Cumbria Clock Company could be seen reinstating them inside the tower on Friday (May 5).

The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.
The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.

Now a Lancaster City Council spokesman said: “The clock faces are finished apart from some external repointing which still needs to be undertaken.

"The work which remains outstanding is the installation and commissioning of the mechanism.

"We expect works to recommission the clock tower clock to be complete by Friday, May 19.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In July last year a petition was launched by John Parkinson calling for Morecambe's clock tower to be repaired.

The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.
The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.

The petition attracted hundreds of signatures including members of the ITV crew filming for The Bay in Morecambe.

John, Morecambe born and bred, noticed the clock's four lifeless faces most mornings when he and a friend were voluntary litter-picking between the lifeboat station and the Midland Hotel.

The grade 2 listed clock tower was built in 1905, a gift to his native town by John Robert Birkett, Mayor from 1903-1906.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was designed by two young architects, Charles Cressey and William Keighley, who were also responsible for the former Barclays Bank building in Euston Road.

The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.
The repaired faces of the Morecambe Clock Tower are reinstalled but more works need to be done to get them ticking. Picture by Ruth Morris.

The clock tower was built by John Edmondson, and Rhodes of Lancaster provided a weight driven clock which featured 4 dials, each 40 inches in diameter, and which struck the hours on a bell 20 inches in diameter, and was illuminated at night.

In later years "Gents" of Leicester removed the old clock and installed a master clock with 4 slave dial units, and 4 new perspex dials with clear perspex over them to protect them from weather and vandalism.

This worked for a time, but due mainly to vandalism and the weather and salt air, those clock movements have been replaced with synchronous clock movements behind each dial.

Related topics:MorecambeLancaster City Council