Introduction and historical background
The name ‘Joyce Whitchurch’ will be familiar to anyone who has used a medium to large railway station just about anywhere in the country. That name has for many years adorned and indeed continues to adorn so many large round clock faces above or behind main line station platforms. The firm of J. B. Joyce was originally founded in 1690 by one John Barrett Joyce and was situated in the small village of Cockshutt, near Ellesmere, in north Shropshire. Originally engaged in clock making for church towers and similar edifices, the company moved to nearby Whitchurch in 1790. There in a yard to the rear of the High Street it expanded and continued to manufacture its “Tower Clocks” until a final move to a purpose-built factory in Station Road took place in the year 1904. The company could proudly boast of supplying clocks for landmark buildings from Liverpool to Shanghai.
The move to Station Road placed the works conveniently near the railway station some 200 yards further upwicker baskets for further shipment by rail to various destinations be they within or outside their railway market.
