A celebration of Potts Clocks

[j.c.d.]

Strange about the North St. Bank clock, maybe someone has been servicing / repairing it but as you say it was stopped at 6pm.
When I worked in North Street in the late 1950s the clock At Heatons opposite the Dispensary and the Midland bank clock down at the bottom were my timepieces. was the Heatons Factory clock a Potts one.?

[Leodian]

Passing by early p.m. today (Oct 22 2015) I noticed the clocks now state 10 past 6. I wonder if someone is moving the dials so that their works do not seize up?

[Leodian]

The clock hands must be getting moved as passing by today (Oct 27 2015) at about 11:30 a.m. (and also about 2 hours later) I noticed that all three dials were at quarter past 6.

[buffaloskinner]

The clock hands must be getting moved as passing by today (Oct 27 2015) at about 11:30 a.m. (and also about 2 hours later) I noticed that all three dials were at quarter past 6.

It's someone winding you up

[Leodian]

The clock hands must be getting moved as passing by today (Oct 27 2015) at about 11:30 a.m. (and also about 2 hours later) I noticed that all three dials were at quarter past 6.

It's someone winding you up

That made me buffaloskinner.

Perhaps there are squatters there with time on their hands.

[j.c.d.]

Is that clock on the old ex. Heatons Tailoring factory on the North Street/ New York Road corner a Potts clock ? it certainly is similar to many others around the town, maybe this question has been asked before.

[Leodian]

Is that clock on the old ex. Heatons Tailoring factory on the North Street/ New York Road corner a Potts clock ? it certainly is similar to many others around the town, maybe this question has been asked before.

Hiya j.c.d.

I don't know if it was a Potts Clock but it has been 'missing' for at least 3 years now. This is a link to a related Secret Leeds thread:- http://secretleeds.com/viewtopic.php?t=4483. It certainly does look like it was a Potts Clock. I wonder what happened to it?

[j.c.d.]

Thank you for that quick reply Leodian, With not living in Leeds anymore I did not know it was no longer there. Like the picture very much, I have had quite a few visitsin my time to the old Dispensary shown behind the bus.
Though I have spent many recent years away from Leeds I am a Loiner from head to toe, just love the place and do manage to get back there now and then.

[johnnyg]

The Heatons clock was a Potts Clock. It was installed in 1938 by Charles H Potts & Co Ltd for E. Miller & Co Ltd. It had an illuminated dial of 6' diameter. In "Potts of Leeds; Five generations of Clockmakers", published in 2006, Michael Potts recorded it as being in need of restoration. So the clock must have still been there about that time.

Millers were a "complete house furnishers" and had Providence House, as the building was originally named, built for them. Oddly, Leodis carries a Millers catalogue cover from the 1880-90s that appears to show the same clock.
http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

Although there is also a sot of Heatons in 1929 which does not show the clock there at all.
http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

[tyke bhoy]

I think you answered your own statement JohnnyG. The Leodis shot is 1929 but you stated it was installed (moved) there in 1938. It always struck me that it was an afterthought hung over a window* rather than being a feature of the original building. In the half-cab bus shot you can see the brick arch (lintel) spreading the weight above the orifice.

*I'm sure it was a little more robust than just "superglued" to the window

I do suspect it was still there into the noughties but unfortunately all the pictures on Leodis, I can find, from that decade have the building covered in scaffolding and tarpaulins(?) covered in advertising or false frontage. Even the first two google streetview images, both in 2008, have the buildings frontage obscured similarly.