Redcar Clock

The town clock is dedicated to King Edward VII, he was a regular visitor to this area so when he came to the throne it was decided by the townsfolk to celebrate with a coronation clock. Coatham and Redcar had recently combined as one authority and it was a joint venture between the two communities.There was an appeal for funds and £300 was raised, some of it by selling "penny bricks". The total amount was not sufficient and so the idea of a clock was put aside. In 1911, when King Edward VII died, the fund was re-opened and so the clock became a memorial clock. The clock was built on the previous boundary twixt Redcar and Coatham, and it was to face the four cardinal compass points, North, South, East and West 17 designs were tendered and that of architect William Duncan was accepted. Robert Richardson made the clock's mechanism and the builder was John Dobson. A local man. Mr. Gordon Scott, made the wrought iron weather vane. Mrs Walton donated the Bell. Councillor Henry Hudson performed the opening ceremony, which took place on Wednesday 29th January 1913 at 6.45pm. Boy Scouts sounded a fanfare, and a silver knife was used during the ceremony, The Warrenby Band played a selection of music. Residents of the nearby hotel objected to the clock striking the hour during the night,and so it was judiciously disconnected. A watchmaker was adamant that the time shown on the four clock faces never correlated. The clock tower is built of red engineering bricks, and reinforced concrete. A wartime shell, 6ft high, was given to Redcar as a token of gratitude for help during the 1914-18 war and this was placed under the arches of the clock. Eventually the shell was given to a scrap man. In 1937 all the main buildings in the town were illuminated and the clock must have been a magnificent sight! After the Second World War the pendulum and weights mechanism was replaced by an electric motor to operate the clock and in 1984 the clock faces were all renewed. Today it is a Grade II listed building and a valued part of our local heritage. The clock is subject to our adverse weather conditions being situated so near to the North Sea. During the 1970s the bell was removed, re-cast and hung in St.Mark's Church,Marske by-the-Sea.