I have a vivid recollection of being taken to Chapel Street Infants’ School by my mother sometime about the year 1941. Having crossed Jacksons’ (Anvil) Bridge, we reached the top of Ropewalk when we were accosted by a woman who, pointing towards the turret of the Town Hall, launched an angry tirade, the meaning of which was as incomprehensible to me as the reason which had prompted it.

I recall the word "disgusting" and as I attempted to make sense of the situation my eyes followed the direction in which the woman’s arm was pointing and I realised that the object of her wrath was the Town Hall clock.

The clock had stopped and someone, presumably in an effort to restart it, had carelessly left unfastened the hinged glass cover so that the glass now hung open at right angles to the clock face, receptive to the passing breeze and in danger of being smashed, thus leaving the clock face fully exposed to the elements.

The incident, although fragmentary in its nature is as vivid in its detail as it was more than sixty years ago.

And yet…and yet…

When in the Spring of 1994, the recently deceased and much lamented Edwin Beckett arranged for the installation of a clock at the top of the Town Hall turret, the event was celebrated in verse by Mrs Joyce Bell who concluded her eulogy by stating that her mother, Dolly Lightowler, had always wished to see a clock set in the "bare face" of the Town Hall - a wish which had now come true. (1)

The implication of the remark, backed up by familial memory stretching back to the early decades of the twentieth century, was that no clock had previously adorned the façade of the Town Hall. Yet notwithstanding this fact, the remark sparked an intensive debate as to whether or not the Town Hall had ever had a clock. Impassioned claims, allegedly based on personal recollection, were countered by vehement denials. The argument eventually ending inconclusively for want of irrefutable evidence.

What is presented here is an examination of the available material concerning the subject in the hope of producing an accurate conclusion for the historical record.

Knottingley Town Hall, a "Neat, two-storied structure surmounted by a clock turret", was designed by the architects Shaw & Weightman and constructed by a local builder, John Stanhope, at the behest of the newly formed Knottingley Town Council Company and opened on the 5th September 1865. The building cost £2,000, raised in part by the sale of 1,000 x £1 shares to the local public. (2)

The building specifications make no mention of a clock but the presence of a circular alcove near the top of the centrally placed turret at the front of the building implies and aspirational hope of fulfilment at a later date. (3) Indeed, expectations were doubtless high for although shareholders did not seek a huge return on their investment, the facilities and services offered to the local community rather than excessive profit being the primary consideration, a return of 5% on the shares was confidently expected. (4)

Meanwhile, plans were being formulated elsewhere to add a tower to the parish church of St. Botolph. Construction of the tower began in 1873 (5) but lack of money caused delay and as late as October 1875 the church tower was still unfinished while activities continued to be undertaken to raise the sum of £700 required to ensure its completion. (6)

As with the Town Hall, provision was made for the eventual installation of a clock on the church tower but money was not immediately available and for a number of years the space was filled by a dummy clockface.

A letter to the local newspaper complaining of the ridiculous appearance of the church tower with its artificial clock prompted efforts to raise £200 to furnish the tower with a real clock. (7) Public events and individual donations from August 1883 resulted in the accumulation of the requisite amount and in March 1884 it was announced that the church clock was expected to be installed by Easter. (8) On the 10th April 1884 the clock on the tower of St. Botolph’s church was "opened" to public gaze. (9)

Conformation that the Town Hall had no clock at that date is contained in the above mentioned letter which stated that the only public clock in the town was that belonging to the Ropewalk Wesleyan Chapel. (10)

The provision of a public timepiece situated in close proximity to the Town Hall made the necessity for a clock on that building somewhat superfluous. Nor was money available for such a project for the fortunes of the Knottingley Town Hall Company had declined and by the turn of the twentieth century the company was insolvent.

As a result, early in 1901, the Town Hall was sold by public auction and was bought by Mr. J.G. Lyon, proprietor of the Aire Tar Works, who the following year, presented the Town Hall to the recently established (1894) Knottingley Urban District Council, on behalf of the inhabitants of the township. (11)

A decision was taken at that time to adapt the rooms once used as the town’s Mechanics’ Institute, as a Council Chamber for use by the relocated Council. The Council, newly emerged from a protracted legal dispute arising from the construction of the public drainage scheme, lacked the funds to finance the alterations. Once again J.G. Lyon generously financed the conversion and in 1904 the Council marked the opening of the Town Hall as the administrative centre of the township by holding a civic function in honour of Lyon.

During speeches delivered on that occasion, a local solicitor, W.E. Clayton-Smith, humorously expressed a desire to emulate Lyon by adding an illuminated clock to the façade of the Town Hall. The comment struck a chord with Cr. E.L. Poulson, proprietor of the West Riding Pottery, Ferrybridge, who stated that if the Council should think it appropriate to install a clock at the front of the Town Hall, he would gladly subscribe to its cost. (12)

The parlous financial state of the Council precluded action at that time, however, and the well-known photograph of the front of the Town Hall circa 1910, clearly reveals the absence of any clock at that date.

Conditions arising from the advent of the Great War (1914-1918) and its economic aftermath, followed by the Second World War (1939-1945) and post war austerity, militated against the installation of a clock.

Notwithstanding the assertion of the late, respected antiquarian, Harry Battye, that the Town Hall once featured an ornamental clock, (13) a thorough search of the K.U.D.C. Minutes Books, newspaper files and old photographs, has failed to produce any indication of a clock. All the evidence suggests that no such clock ever existed.

Why then do I, in company with countless other townsfolk, retain a vivid impression of the existence of a Town Hall clock? Wish fulfilment? Is there some deep-seated Freudian explanation? Are we genetically programmed to defy history or is collective memory prompted by the same psychological impulse that makes all the days of childhood retrospectively sunny?

There must be an explanation for our obvious self-delusion.

Dr. Terry Spencer
January 2007

NOTES:

1. Pontefract & Castleford Express 7-4-1994 p12
2. Spencer T. ‘Knottingley Town Hall’, (2000), for the history of the building.
3. op cit Appendix One for full specifications.
4. Pontefract Advertiser 19-11-1864
5. ibid 14-10-1873
6. ibid 16-10-1875 & 23-10-1875
7. ibid 18-8-1883
8. ibid 19-1-1884
9. ibid 19-4-1884. The term "opened" was used by the newspaper reporter and seems somewhat inappropriate. It is difficult, however, to find a more suitable word; ‘dedicated’ and ‘designated’ which spring to mind are either factually incorrect or equally inappropriate.