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Summary

Unlisted clock tower with hexagonal plan shelter, built in 1929 in the centre of the Broadway

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Conservation Area: Newbury Town Centre

Monument Type(s):

• CLOCK TOWER (Early to Mid 20th century - 1929 AD to 1929 AD)

Full Description

The Clock House or Clock Tower was built in 1929, superseding an earlier clock erected for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Pevsner describes the Clock Tower as having a colonnaded base like a market cross <1>. Above this hexagonal shelter rises a three sided tower with a clock in each face. Inscribed on a panel within the shelter are the words, 'This Clock House was the Gift of James Henry Gooding 1929. Builder E B Hitcham. Architect C R Rowland Clark.'

The first documented monument at this site was the gas lamp <1><6> on top of a pillar of Bath stone, which was later moved to the corner of the Bath Road and Speen Lane. A true clock tower was erected to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887; townspeople subscribed towards the cost and the cast ironwork pillar with a four faced clock was unveiled in 1889. It is not clear why this Victorian structure was superseded, but it was apparently melted down in Plenty's Eagle Ironworks during the Second World War <1><16>. Possibly the site had become over cluttered, including with a telephone box. A public telephone was originally provided inside the Clock House.

The carving above the three clock faces on the top of the 1920s Clock House makes reference to the two previous monuments known at the site as well as the present one. The following dates and monarch's initials are recorded: GR V 1929; VR1 1887; GR IV 1829.

It has also been suggested, however, that Speenhamland's wayside chapel could have been at this location in the centre of the Broadway <2><3>; certainly there was a building here which is mapped in the early 18th century <13>.

The 20th century building was identified during a historic character study as being significant to Newbury, but unlisted <4><5>.

Photographs and maps document the changing monuments in the centre of the Broadway <7-12>. A local resident gave details of the history of the site in a letter to the Newbury Weekly News <16>.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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