Do You Remember the One O'Clock Gun?

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

Does anyone remember -- or does it still occur -- the one o'clock gun?

Chris

[lindylou]

I remember the One o'clock gun Chris. We don't have it now.

[ChrisGeorge]

I remember the One o'clock gun Chris. We don't have it now.

Thanks, Lindy. I think the one-o'clock gun came from New Brighton as I recall. Or am I dreaming????

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

Actually I have researched and there is quite a lot on the one o'clock gun on the net. It appears the actual gun was located in Birkenhead but the timing was controlled by the observatory in Bidston. See the following for various references:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...n%22+Liverpool



Image courtesy of The Liverpool Time Ball and one o'clock gun

Chris

[scouserdave]

The gun's still there. It's in between the Seacombe Mersey and Irish Ferry terminals.

[ChrisGeorge]

The gun's still there. It's in between the Seacombe Mersey and Irish Ferry terminals.

Thank you, Dave, for that information. Could you or someone get a pic? Does it still fire at one o'clock? I presume not based on what Lindy said but you may know better.

Chris

[scouserdave]

Thank you, Dave, for that information. Could you or someone get a pic? Does it still fire at one o'clock? I presume not based on what Lindy said but you may know better.

Chris

Chris, I've got a couple of pics, but I can't find them! Grrrr!
I was hoping to include them in my ealier post. I've never heard it fire. The gun is fenced off now, looks more like a momument nowadays. Deffo a subject worth googling.

[scouserdave]

Chris, sorry mate, I'm losing the plot. I meant the Woodside Ferry, not Seacombe.

[ChrisGeorge]

Chris, I've got a couple of pics, but I can't find them! Grrrr!
I was hoping to include them in my ealier post. I've never heard it fire. The gun is fenced off now, looks more like a momument nowadays. Deffo a subject worth googling.

Thanks, Dave. The gun, whether still operable or not, is definitely a monument to Liverpool and Merseyside's past. I don't know whether you noted but the site where I obtained the pic is by an Edinburgh bloke who has studied these "time guns." There were a lot of them in different cities and such a gun was essential in a port such as Liverpool to ensure that the maritime traffic ran to schedule.

Chris

[scouse mouse]

I remember it well. As a kid living on Park Rd in the Dingle it used to make all the windows rattle when it went off.

Another great memory of living close to the river was hearing the horns all going off at midnight on New Years eve.

[knowhowe]

I remember being able to hear it in Crosby as a kid. Quite a distance for sound to travel- it must have been loud!
Funny how sounds form quite a large part of one's reminisciences. The memory, for example, of lying in my bed and hearing the fog horns from the river. Somehow a cosy and reassuring sound of a cold winter night...

[ChrisGeorge]

I remember being able to hear it in Crosby as a kid. Quite a distance for sound to travel- it must have been loud!
Funny how sounds form quite a large part of one's reminisciences. The memory, for example, of lying in my bed and hearing the fog horns from the river. Somehow a cosy and reassuring sound of a cold winter night...

When I lived in Mossley Hill in the Sixties, I remember the squealing of goods trains being shunted each night in the railyards of Garston. Since at the same time there were a lot of reports in the popular press of UFOs, I began to think that the sounds could have been something other than what they actually were!!!

Chris

[MissInformed]

When I lived in Mossley Hill in the Sixties, I remember the squealing of goods trains being shunted each night in the railyards of Garston. Since at the same time there were a lot of reports in the popular press of UFOs, I began to think that the sounds could have been something other than what they actually were!!!

Chris

when did you leave Liverpool's fair shores Chris?

[ChrisGeorge]

when did you leave Liverpool's fair shores Chris?

Hi MissInformed

I first emigrated to the U.S. with my parents at age seven in 1955 but was so homesick that I was allowed by my Mom and Dad to come back and live with my grandparents in Mossley Hill. I went to Rose Lane School and Quarry Bank from 1961 to 1967, worked for Martin's Bank in Aigburth Vale and in the cash center by the Town Hall for a year then came back to the US in August 1968 on board a United States Lines container ship from Bootle... one of the last merchant ships to carry passengers I believe. Been here ever since, living in the Baltimore area.

Chris

[cillapink]

When did the 1o'clock gun last fire? I have a vague sort of memory of it, but dont know if its cos I been told about it years ago or whether I actully heard it.
My 'noise' from my childhood, was the siren from Dunlops at 12 O'clock , I always knew it was lunchtime and mum used to tell me about the air raid sirens going off during the war in Bootle and that that sound was the all clear,
Still sticks in my memories today