Bruce's Clock Tower

Thomas Bruce was for many years foreman mechanic as Strines Print Works. It is likely that he had a clock-making background, an ideal training for the innovation required in the rapidly developing calico printing industry.

It certainly seems that "Old Bruce" was resourceful, building a domestic waterwheel and manufacturing his own gas for his home "Whitecroft Cottage" (now next to the Recreation Ground). He made his turret clock (signed Thomas Bruce 1809), which was sited on the original works buildings next to Strines Hall. The coming and goings of Strines people were ordered by the striking of its bell in the days when clocks and watches were rare household acquisitions.

The eight-day movement striking hourly is mounted on a wrought iron frame - a design popular in the north and midlands in the late C18th. Bruce also made another clock for Disley Church that was replaced in the early C20th.