Lindley Clock Tower, Lidget Street and Daisy Lee Lane, Lindley, Huddersfield

Wood’s last commission for James Neild Sykes was the Lindley Clock Tower, at the corner of Lidget Street and Daisy Lea Lane, designed in 1900 and completed in 1902. Sykes died in 1903. As the inscription above the entrance records, it was commissioned by James Nield Sykes, “for the benefit of his native village”

The Art Nouveau clock tower stands 83 feet tall, its height exaggerated by the diagonal corner buttresses which terminate with pinnacles above the eaves of the copper-clad octagonal pagoda roof, now with characteristic green patina. Built from local stone, its walls more than two feet thick, the tower is given further vertical emphasis by the mullions to the bell chamber, slit windows and the beautifully carved elongated figures placed above the doorway and near the tops of the four buttresses. These figures and the copper roof were the work of sculptor Stirling Lee, whom Wood employed on several occasions. The sculptures above the door explore the theme of Time, while those on the buttresses portray the eternal virtues, Truth, Love, Purity and Justice. The gargoyles rearing out from the four corners of the tower, described as ‘The Beasts Fleeing from the Towers of Time’, depict Lazy, Vicious, Cunning and Greedy Dogs. An asymmetrically placed spiral stair leads to a balcony below the belfry, occasionally open to the public, who can also view the clock mechanism.

Reference    British Architect 11 May 1900 Page 328 and illustration
Reference    John Archer, Partnership in Style, Catalogue to an exhibition of the works of Edgar Wood & J. Henry Sellers, Manchester City Art Gallery, Oct/Nov 1975.
Reference    Edgar Wood in Huddersfield, Edgar Wood Heritage Group (Yorkshire)