Lost Clocks of Liverpool

NEW!   We have launched a new booklet on our website.

The clocks in the booklet date from 1770 or thereabouts, up to the early twentieth century. During this period Liverpool was a fabulously rich town (it was not a city until 1880) which had expanded rapidly; there were many very fine buildings including churches, commercial and retail buildings and a fine housing stock. There was however an ever increasing poor working class which had been attracted to the area by the town’s prosperity, resulting in rich and poor living in close juxtaposition.

 

The town has always been very efficient at re-inventing itself, so few buildings predating this period survived long into the nineteenth century and those which were seen as inefficient or lacking in the requirements of a particular time, were swept away. The ravages of fire, and neglect also played their part, so that in many cases, it is not just the clocks, but many of the buildings in this booklet have also gone or have been re-built.

Up to 1699, the small town of Liverpool was in the parish of Walton on the Hill. In that year, the separate parish of Liverpool was created and St Nicholas became the parish church. St Peter’s, which dates from 1704, was the first church to be built in the new parish and stood in fields which bordered the town at the time; it too became part of the Parish of Liverpool along with others as the population and the number of churches grew.  Some of these have survived, others have gone in the name of progress.

This is an on-going project. The booklet will be updated as further information comes to light or when clocks which had been thought to be permanently lost are located. If readers have any information to offer which can be added to the stories of these or other clocks, please get in touch at steveanddarlah@inbeat.org

.Included in the booklet are:

  1. The Poor House and The Exchange
  2. St Peter’s Church
  3. St Nicholas Church
  4. St Paul’s Church
  5. Georges Baths
  6. Albert Dock
  7. Kirkdale Schools
  8. Victoria Tower
  9. Stanley Hospital
  10. Anfield Cemetery
  11. North Haymarket
  12. Princes Dock
  13. Central Station
  14. Lime Street Station
  15. Turner Home
  16. White Star Headquarters
  17. David Lewis Hostel
  18. Lewis’s Department Store
  19. St John’s Market
  20. St George’s and St John’s Churches
  21. Holy Trinity and St Nathaniel’s Churches
  22. The Dock Estate
  23. Langton Dock

Thanks to those who enabled our access to their buildings, supplied images and provided information.