Kurt Roberts made the trip up from South Wales to explore the clock – installed at the Penmaenmawr and Welsh Granite Company mine in the 1930s.
While he couldn’t physically get to the 12ft diameter clockface, which was originally gifted to the mine by the Euclid Company of Ohio, he did fly a drone near it to film content for his Youtube channel, @kurtvanlife.
And the South Walian was amazed that despite nature being well on the way to reclaiming the clock, it was still running – and telling the right time!
“It’s known as North Wales’ Big Ben and it’s a nice bit of history,” he said. “Apparently people would see it from Conwy Beach, It’s seen by millions of drivers every day and I’ve driven past it myself without ever really noticing it.
“An amazing fact is it still show the correct time! It is slowly being hidden away by trees but I just think it’s something cool.”
Euclid Company gifted the clock to the mine as a thank-you gift after it made a significant purchase of digger equipment from the American firm.
For almost 100 years it has looked over Penmaenmawr and despite the structure around it having been stripped away and the tree line beginning to envelope it, the clock, whose movement is small, continues to tell the time accurately to this day.
And for those asking whether, as Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the clocktower in London, the Penmaenmawr clock rings or chimes on the hour – the short answer is no.
It is however an intriguing part of the town’s history that looks likely to disappear in the coming years as the woodland continues to rise up around it.
