Cardiff Bay: Willows clock

I imagine very few people even notice this modern-looking clock, designed by Andrew Hazell in 2000, as they shop or dine in the retail outlets and eateries beneath the small roof-top tower in which it sits, in Cardiff Bay’s Mermaid Quay.

As the clock is inaccessible, passers-by would neither be able to see the clock properly nor read what is written around the two faces: ‘E T Willows Pioneer Aeronaut 1886 1926’, though the 2 in 1926 seems to have fallen off the western face of the clock.

 

The clock celebrates the life and achievements of one of Cardiff’s lesser known inhabitants, Ernest Thompson Willows (1886 – 1926), and the two faces of the clock were apparently intended to represent Cardiff and London, a nod to Willows’ historic airship flight between the two cities in August 1910. (You may notice, in the photo below, that the times shown on the two faces are different; there is no time difference between Cardiff and London, of course, so I presume this is a fault in one of the clocks. My clock photos were taken some years apart.)

 

There is an excellent biography of Ernest Willows on the Roath Local History Society website so I won't repeat his details here. Instead, I thought I'd use a couple of images from the Welsh newspapers of the time to highlight one of his most notable achievements, that 1910 airship flight to London. The caption for this first image, published in The Cardiff Times on 25 December 1909, reads: 'The Willows Airship Tests. The picture shows one of Mr Willows' flights, at Cardiff on Saturday. (Metropole studio, Cardiff.)'

 

And this second image, from the Evening Express and Evening Mail of 8 August 1910, documents

THE START OF MR. E. T. WILLOWS' RECORD FLIGHT.
(1) Mr. Willows ready to start. It will be seen that the young balloonist is wearing a lifebelt in case of a mishap whilst crossing the Bristol Channel. (2) The airship leaves the shed at 7.50 p.m. (3) Final examination of the motor and machinery. (4) The start. Mr. Willows heads for London.

 

You can read Roath Local History Society's biography to learn more of Willows' career but, suffice to say, his achievements were barely recognised during his lifetime and his short life was ended by an aerial accident; Willows and four others were killed when the basket beneath their balloon disintegrated and they plummeted to the ground.

 

Ernest Thompson Willows is buried in Cardiff's Cathays Cemetery; his grave is number 20 on the Cathays Cemetery Heritage Trail. As his headstone notes, Willows shares the plot with his infant daughter and his parents.