1886 - 2020

KENSINGTON PLACE CLOCK TOWER

"The hands of the clock have stayed at half eleven for fifty years."
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood

How long has the clock at Kensington Place (aka the Lodge Plugs Building) been in a State of hibernation circa fifty years?

It was brought back to life on Monday 23rd January 2012. A Super accurate electric motor was installed that now drives the original hands and automatically updates the time with the seasonal changes. The original clock mechanism and pendulum were retrieved and then carefully cleaned to remove the evidence that it had been used socially as a pigeon perch!

On a gear wheel, an inscription reads ‘Hollingshead Olney 1900’ and it is understood that the clock was installed by Mr Hollingshead a local watch maker and clock repairer at the end of the last major expansion of the factory. Apparently, he brought the clock to the site in a wheelbarrow! He also held the contract to maintain, wind and check the accuracy of the clock and others in the factory. It has been suggested that the clock was ordered through Mr Hollingshead and it is most likely to have been manufactured by the redoubtable clockmaker Thwaites and Reed of Clerkenwell London, This august company was established in 1740 but has a clock making history back to 1610. One of the interesting features of the clock is the Harrison ‘maintaining power’ mechanism invented by John Harrison! This ensures the clock keeps time even when it is being wound.

Kensington Place is now a block of twenty luxury apartments towards the northern edge of Olney. It was officially opened on the 12th May 1884 as a boot and shoe factory under the partners name of Hinde and Mann. Production soared and reached a peak of 13,000 pairs of boots and shoes every week. The workforce numbered about 330 when William Hinde retired on the 17th June 1899 and Joseph Mann supervised the building of a further story including the present clock tower. After the First World War, production of boots and shoes slumped due to the sever economic conditions worldwide and greater competition.

During the Second World War in 1940, Lodge Plugs took over the building to make sparkplugs for aircraft; this was a vital element of the national war effort. After the end of the war, the building was acquired by the Maxwell corporation, a publishing conglomerate. Owner Robert Maxwell was notorious for robbing the Mirror newspaper pension fund amongst other shady dealings!

Conversion of the building for residential use started in 1998 with the first occupants moving in during the year 2000.