The Leyland Clock

This is a sketch of the Leyland Clock that stood within the garden of the Brewery Arts Centre, currently away for repair the site, as it stands at the moment is a bit of an eyesore, so, with hope that it returns soon, or someone decides that something a little more aesthetically pleasing to the eye would be better placed.

In the meantime, back to BYGONE DAYS from Arthur R. Nicholls Historian and Vice Chairman of Kendal Civic Society

There used to be a standing joke about the Leyland Clock in the grounds of Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre, that it always showed the right time, - at 1.50 twice a day!

Despite the advertisement on the clock - 'Leyand Motors For All Time' - it had ceased to work for some 20 years or more.

The Lancashire Steam Motor Company started up in 1896 and later as Leyland Motors Ltd, placed clocks at seven prominent positions on major trunk roads. The clocks were mounted on latticework towers , the face hanging below a sign advertising the name of the firm.

Our Kendal clock was on the A6 North of the old Jungle Cafe, south of Shap summit. It had faces showing in both directions at an angle, studded with reflex lenses to reflect car headlanps.

For many years the clock was wound by Thomas Huck, a local farmer, who was paid £2 a year for his pains and after his death by his daughter, Mrs Lenore Knoles.

Seeming to have outgrown its usefulness it was removed in 1970 and stored for three years before being put up again at the Brewery where relapsed into its slumber.

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum Trust placed a commemorative stone at the old site, inscribed with a brief history of the Leyland Clocks, and refurbished it, starting it again at noon on Sunday October 6, 1966. It was later taken away for further work.

When it returns if you want to know the time don't ask a policeman but look at the Leyland Clock . Hopefully, it will have right.

End of News Piece. NB. I hope the good Arthur R Nicholls wont be upset being a now regular inclusion of my BLOG I shall have to place a note to him; on my list of things to do.

Returning from the Brewery I passed under the recent edition to the Town Centre, a pedestrian walk way under the now familiar scaffold that adheres to the exterior wall of the recent Fire Damage to the property that gave home to around 13 Artists, each losing a life times work and gaining a brand new start in life, to lose everything and to have to start again, with nothing, is a terrifically cleansing experience and indeed as much a spiritual as a practical opportunity for rebirth.

For those with a sense of curiosity, the huge tanks that sit around the base of the scaffold is simply water, ballast to hold down the scaffold, not something that I have seen before having spent many occasions staring up into the maze that is a scaffold system, each piece fitting like a jigsaw piece and with a specific design and purpose with Health and Safety at its fore, not only for the workers but also for passers by, Scaffold, when it collapses is not unlike the 'mexican wave', or the dominoes that people lay out in their thousands to watch them all topple with a flick of a finger, when it starts to go a thousand pieces or more role in quite a beautiful way.