Carnforth Station clock

Today's the day ........................... to tell the time

This is the famous clock at Carnforth Station - where I have just spent the afternoon as a volunteer at the Heritage Centre.  The clock is famous because it features in the David Lean film Brief Encounter - and a lot of the action in the film takes place near it or on the underpass that descends from the platform beneath it. 

Until the coming of the railways in the 1820s and 30s, time in Britain was a moveable feast.  Bristol time and London time were at least 10 minutes apart, but it never mattered as travelling was such a slow process.  With the coming of trains, it all had to change - and time and timetables had to be standardised.  Railway companies adopted Greenwich time and by 1852, thanks to parliamentary acts, this was established throughout Britain.  Greenwich time became known as railway time.  As a result, stations had clocks, generally in prominent places or grand architectural settings and represented the first large-scale development of public clocks in Britain. 

The ability to meet beneath the station clock changed for ever the domestic pattern and, more significantly,  romance.  And no station clock could say more about romance than this world famous Brief Encounter clock ...........................