Barnstaple Clock Tower was erected in 1862 as a memorial to Prince Albert and it can be seen for miles around with its four clock faces, but for years each one has been giving its own variation of the correct time and in consequence it acquired for itself the nickname of “the four faced liar” as whichever side you saw gave a totally different time to the other three and all of them were wrong anyhow.Eventually the whole lot seized up and has been stuck at four stationary times of the day for a few years now. Well, at least the locals have the right time of day eight times in 24 hours, depending on which clock face they look at, but finally the sleepy Council have put through plans to finally actually repair the clock, and guess what? The four-faced liar will remain as just that!
The tower will still show four slightly different times on each side. The discrepancy will be retained "because it is now considered to be part of the town's history"....huh?
Meanwhile the bemused people of Barnstaple simply just want a working clock that tells them the correct/accurate time ...simultaneously... on all its four faces!
6 points of view:
Does this qualify as English eccentricity?
Definitely Devon eccentricity.
No kidding, I'm sure they would prefer to have the correct time after all those years.
Sounds a bit like my house, every clock in this house tells a different time too.
Posh? You'd be so happy living in Barnstaple. You'd always know the right time of day (sorta)
it seems to me that, at its core, this is a marketing problem.
the "four faced liar" slogan is compelling...so maybe if a better tag line was ceated, there would be motivation to fix the time disagreement.
"prince albert's can" is probably the wrong approach...so any ideas out there?
Post a Comment