Tag: three faced liar

#365daysofbiking Finally telling the truth

Saturday November 14th 2020 – Snatched photos of a grim, blustery evening, but I’m glad to see after a long period without hands, the Brownhills Parkview Centre Clock – erected by public subscription on the then Council House in 1914 – is now telling the correct time again.

It’s never been a reliable timepiece and for most of my lifetime it’s either been broken or incorrect, but in recent years this rather lovely old thing has been well serviced and has been pretty accurately chiming the hour across the town, be it busy weekday noons or somnambulant summer midnights.

I’ve always found the council house impressive but a bit ugly, built in very orange terracotta, but it is an impressive landmark, now overshadowed in colloquial directions by the metal miner on the nearby island.

The lovingly nicknamed ‘three faced liar’ is another of my constants that I look to for stability – even if inaccurate. It’s as much Brownhills as the common or the canal.

So glad to see it fixed,

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November 15th – While capturing Morris, the lights of the former Brownhills Council House – The Parkview Centre – caught my eye. It was an interesting original building – not handsome or beautiful, but a tour-de-force of civic pride in a growing town made prosperous by coal and bricks. The brick legacy is reflected in the light terracotta masonry, and engaging detail around the windows, doors and eaves.

Sadly, up until recently, the hundred year old clock has neither been accurate nor reliable, and is affectionately known as the ‘three-faced liar’ to locals.

Recently, the timepiece has been refurbished following welcome work instigated by the Brownhills Local Committee, with new mechanisms and seems to be holding time well; it was a mere minute fast in this picture.

Unfortunately, the civic pride the building and clock conferred has been utterly destroyed by the hideous, architecturally lazy and cheap extensions added in the last decade to make this landmark suitable as a health centre and library.

A more botched, unsuitable conversion would be hard to find.