THE CLOCK CAFE CLOCK

OR, The Featherstone peoples town clock

The recent further insult to Featherstone is to sell of its 2nd town hall in 3 years. By fate this resulted in me meeting MR. Tom Precious. What he had to say about the history he has kept is very interesting to the town hall cause and to the history of Featherstone. The history of this clock is greatly important.
The story starts in 1897 when the clock was ordered from Potts of Leeds as a yet another gift like Lister Baths, for the workforce and inhabitants of Featherstone. The clock is called a drum and Potts were and still are the Bentley of clock makers.
Due to Potts being fully booked with work they did not fit the clock until 1898 and it was not first fitted where it is now. Originally it was fitted on the junction pub. It also then worked differently than it does now. Originally it was driven from a shaft inside the junction pub. The hole can still be seen today. In the back ground of the picture of the Junction pub you can see the towers of the Featherstone brewery that is now the car park.
In 1916 and world war 1, a passing German Zeppelin bombed the Junction pub area and the clock was blown of the wall. There are lots of tales of what the zeppelin was trying to bomb such as the coking plant on Green lane or just trying to lower moral by blowing up the brewery.
The Featherstone public rallied round. With public subscription to remember the local war dead the clock was restored. It was refitted on the town hall as you now see it in 1919.
Personally I find this touching and heart warming and add a comment that as well as the war, Featherstone people at the time were also grateful as they had been given the best swimming pool and community dance hall for many a 100 mile.
The clock was altered in 1933 by Potts who fitted a synchronism motor and changed the hands as they were too heavy to be run by the new motor. The clock then became unique as the old mechanism was left in and so the clock now had 2. Again this and further small repairs over the years were paid for by public subscription. The Wakefield district council then took over the costs of repair as so they did with all the public clocks in the area such as churches and historical ones like ours.
Next in the history is MR. Precious. Featherstone has a lot to thank him for. He has looked after this and other clocks in Featherstone for over 40 years. Trust me when I say his skill is dying breed and we are very fortunate to have him. In 2002 an overall off the clock was ordered by Wakefield council. The reason why became clear as it was announced the year after that Purston town hall was to be sold off and the council move into the Wakefield road building. A survey of the clock was taken by Smiths of Derby who had over the years now taken over Potts. There is a lot of detail about this job, so In brief the clock required various repairs that were agreed. The clock was taken away on 24th April 2002 and replaced on 1st August 2002.
Thanks to MR. Tom Precious shall we say a convenient cost saving mistake had been spotted? The clock had had a new drum and face. It looked to many mint. The big con was the face. The original face was cast metal with 1897 cast on it as that’s when it was made. The new face said 1898 the year it was fitted. It had gained a year and also by magic turned into plastic? Tom questioned this and at first all involved denied the switch. The faces appeared missing. Thankfully for us Tom persisted and in the new Featherstone way got results by going to press. Suddenly the original clock faces turned up at Smiths. They were refitted over 2 days due to bad weather on 18th and 20th October.
So again Featherstone due to its ancestor’s efforts owns a piece of its history. The building should only be sold to the people of Featherstone, who if history predicts will raise the money if they have to be asked.
Thanks for the history lesson MR. Precious.