Object of the week- Potts clock

Once a faithful timepiece at one of the north’s favourite seaside getaways, this impressive clock has finally come home to Leeds.

Made by famous Leeds clockmakers Potts and Sons, the solid pine clock is around two-an-a-half feet wide and once ticked away the hours in the circulating area at Morecambe Promenade station, where it was installed in 1907.

In the 1970s, it passed into the ownership of a private collector before it was purchased at auction by Leeds Museums and Galleries last summer.

Now it’s set to go on display as part of Leeds Industrial Museum’s huge collection honouring the city’s industrial heritage.

The station at Morecambe welcomed a huge number of holidaymakers from Yorkshire and the resort even became known as ‘Bradford on Sea.’

In search of a suitably imposing and reliable clock, the station’s designers turned to renowned clockmakers Potts and Sons, a family business that had been established in Pudsey in 1833 by William Potts.

The company had continued to grow, supplying clocks for many public buildings across Yorkshire and beyond, with a total of 1,568 installed at locations including at Leeds Town Hall and Leeds Corn Exchange.

John McGoldrick, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of industrial history, said: “From humble beginnings, Potts and Sons became something of a standard bearer for clocks on public buildings, with their timepieces adorning cathedrals, churches, town halls, schools, engineering works and railways both at home and abroad.”

Potts clocks were not only installed in England, with examples also found at Lerwick Town Hall in the Shetland Islands, the Roman Catholic Church Hall in Melbourne, Australia and the post office in Port Lyttleton, New Zealand.

For more information about Leeds Industrial Museum, please visit: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/Pages/armleymills.aspx

ENDS