Lindley Clock Tower

Lindley Clock Tower stands at the junction of five roads (Daisy Lea Lane, Occupation Road, Acre Street, Plover Road and Lidget Street) just outside the centre of Lindley village in north Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The exact location, according to Google Maps, is actually 53.65886902300819, -1.8217295408248901 in grid square: IO93CP.

Once a year, the tower is opened over the weekend by Kirklees Council as part of the Heritage Open Days program. I had missed the 2006 opening but happened to be passing when it was open this time (2007).

The clock chimes the quarter-hours and chimes count the hour - these can be heard clearly over the surrounding district including our house. The tower was commissioned by a local mil owner who didn't want his workforce to be late!

The semi-circular buttress on the side of the tower houses the spiral staircase which provides access to the lower of the three chambers, the upper two being the mechanism / clock face chamber and the bell chamber on top of that.

The information board outside the tower had loads of info. Rather than copy it verbatim, I photographed the info instead. The first two are general information about the tower.

Below is some information on the architect Edgar Wood.

And this is an extract from the local rag Huddersfield Examiner from 1902.

The view from the "observation deck" about 2/3 of the way up the tower is obstructed by trees in most directions, although there the Emley Moor TV mast can be cleary seen as can part of the hospital.

This is the view up Plover Road overlooking the soon to be demolished Tower News newsagents - Jacksons Supermarket is being extended.

Access to the clock mechanism was not forthcoming (understandably) so I took some photos through the hatch and some photos of the photos (if that makes sense) on the info board (so I apologise for the quality).

This is the view from the atrium up inside the tower. The wooden boxing in on the left is where the weights from the machanism would have dropped. However the clock has been converted to run on electricity so this is no longer used.

The bells are connected to the mechanism by a bit of linkage...

...to the bells themselves

Here is some more detail of the top of the tower with someone peering out of the observation turret (soft, what light etc.)