We have a brand new Town Hall clocktower in Fordingbridge. It has arrived a bit late because while it was being rebuilt thieves broke into the workshop and stole all the copper. Which explains the reason that there was a security guard at the foot of the scaffold while I was taking this picture.
The original much taller tower was built in 1877 and was, I believe, burnt down during the second world war.
Under the clock tower is the town hall where councillors meet to run the town affairs. This year not enough candidates put their names forward by the deadline to make an election necessary, probably because of the lack of a community time piece, so we are a couple of councillors short of a full clique. Despite this handicap, they managed to vote for a budget of £55,000 for the replacement clock tower, which sounds pretty reasonable for such a splendid case. Although there have been those who have suggested that for that amount of money, every man woman and child in the town could have had a new wrist watch and also, that people these days do not use clocks because they have phones! Excuse me! But this is Fordingbridge, and all of our three phone boxes have been burnt down by the lads who have nothing better to do because the money, which was to be spent on lights for the skate park, was not forthcoming. But the clock looks good and makes you feel a pang of civic pride - and it's too high for the lads to set fire to - or the thieves to take the copper.
