Historical Barnoldswick clock gets new home in industrial museum

The Pickles Clock is 90-years-old

A historic clock has been dismantled and rehoused in a museum with other industrial artefacts.

Barnoldswick's Pickles Clock, dating back 90 years, was a bespoke creation of engine millwright Johnny Pickles in the Lancashire town.

It spent many years in the clock tower at the Gissing & Lonsdale factory in Wellhouse Road until the company's recent sale and a new home was needed.

Owners Terry Gissing and Jean Haythornthwaite donated the clock.

Barnoldswick Town Council gave a grant to enable it to be dismantled, moved and rehoused at the Bancroft Mill Engine Museum.

The clock's former owners with descendants of Johnny PIckles at the unveiling ceremony

Siblings, Mr Gissing and Mrs Haythornthwaite, said: "The first thing the family agreed when we left the building was that the clock was not going to be put up for sale.

"It had been a landmark in the town for so long and we wanted it to stay here where it belongs.

"Bancroft Mill was the first place we thought of and now it's here for future generations to enjoy."

The clock sits among the museum's other examples of the town's industrial history, including the steam engine that once powered over 1,000 looms at the mill.

Johnny Pickles and business partner Henry Brown had worked with most of Pendle's many cotton mills as a millwright, and had significant connections with Ouzledale Foundry in the town.

Johnny Pickles and his clock

In his spare time, he built many fine precision pieces including the clock that now bears his name.

It was originally placed in Riley Street Methodist Chapel in Earby but later moved to the tower at Gissing & Lonsdale where it was a familiar sight above the Wellhouse Road factory.

It remained there until recently when G&L became part of Harrison's of Clitheroe.

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