A Brief Encounter With An Old Clock
Call me an old romantic if you like, but when I see an English dial clock hanging on the
wall, I can’t help but think of that iconic film Brief Encounter. The film charts the very British affair of a mother and a doctor
who meet on the railway platform under the station clock. The clock plays as much of a starring role as the principal leads – Celia
Johnson and Trevor Howard. Clearly I am not the only person to have their romantic fancy tickled by the film which is placed a number
two in the British Film Industry top 100 films. The clock is question is a pretty unremarkable thing; of a type found in railway stations
everywhere during the last century. It hangs aside the platform of the railway station at Carnforth, itself a pretty unremarkable
Lancashire town. Yet this one clock is probably responsible for generating more sale for English antique clock dealers than any other
source known to me. Every year, around that time that TV companies show old films, clock dealers up and down the land get a steady
stream of enquiries for a station clock – just like the one they’ve seen in Brief Encounter.
What they really want, of course,
is an English dial clock, but we all know what they mean. More of this type of clock was produced than any other single type to date.
It was the huge prosperity of Victorian England that drove the large demand for dial clocks, and English dial clocks graced the walls
of most public buildings up until relatively recent times. Nowadays, recycled from a railway station waiting room, or a Dickensian
office, or nineteenth century banking hall, these basic instruments of time are simple to restore, and when given a new lease of life,
no "Country Living" kitchen is complete without one hanging on the wall, and they do, of course, sit well against the subtle hues
of Farrow & Ball.
The question of what to look for if you also want to follow the trend is quite simple. Early examples,
up to around 1850 tend to have mahogany boxes and convex painted dials with cast brass surrounds. Later versions have oak or simulated
walnut boxes and flat dials with thin, spun brass bezels surrounding them. The very earliest examples have silvered brass dials and
are now quite rare. Look out for and beware of completely repainted or even replaced dials. All should have what is often referred
to as a "fusee movement". The fusee was a clever device designed to even out the power of the mainspring and lead to better timekeeping
qualities. Its construction is beyond the scope of this article but if you want to check if a clock has one, then have a glance through
the doors on the side of the box – with the vendor’s kind permission of course – if you see a chain running from the mainspring barrel
to a tapered barrel then you are in luck! Like so many antiques that were once unloved and of little status, this type of clock can
now easily cost well into four figures for the most basic example, and if you are lucky enough to find one, several thousand pounds
for the best and earliest pieces. But hey, what price is romance?
The railway clocks in particular are also collected by steam
buffs, so may cost a little more than one from a public building, however, if your initials happen to be GWR, LNER or even BR, you
might be able to kid the neighbours that yours is a family heirloom!
English dial clocks are widely available fully restored
and ready to go from specialist clock dealers who should offer a meaningful guarantee and help with setting up. Auction rooms are
another source but not really recommended in this context as they offer no guarantees and the cost of restoration – if you can find
someone to do it – can cost as much as the clock is probably worth.
So what of the Brief Encounter clock and how did such an
iconic and influential British film come to be made in Carnforth anyway. Well, when filming took place in 1945, the threat of air
raids still hung over London. As filming would be at night with a huge lighting rig, this would not be possible in London. The director,
David Lean, chose to move the crew north to Carnforth on the Lancashire side of the Cumbrian border. Carnforth station was transformed
into the "Milford Junction Station" of the film. The critics originally slated the film which was based on a half-hour stage play
written by Noel Coward called "Still Life" and one preview audience convulsed with laughter at the love scenes. I wonder what they
would make of the film’s classic status today! The clock faired a little better and by the late 1970s was removed and sold. Only years
later was it tracked down, and proving that the age of romance is not yet dead in 2000 it was refurbished and now once again proudly
tells the time as a centre piece of the recently refurbished station. Carnforth station remains a place of pilgrimage for fan of the
film….. and old romantics too.
© David Gibson
First published September 2004