The Birkenhead One O’Clock Gun

Liverpool built its first astronomical Observatory in 1844 at Waterloo Dock and it was operational by January 1845. The engineer was Jesse Hartley, the same man who built the Royal Albert Dock, and John Hartnup was the first astronomer. In 1856 the Magnetic Telegraph Company laid down wires from the Observatory clock to the clock in the Exchange Buildings. This clock was a Henley's Electro-magnetic clock, which had a large dial, which was easily seen from Exchange Flags. The second hands of the Observatory clock and Henley's clock now moved simultaneously, being connected electrically. This service was not only for chronometer makers and owners, but also for the general public. In 1857 the Town Hall clock, about a mile from the Observatory, was also connected to the Observatory. In 1860 the clock in Victoria Tower, which had six dials eight feet in diameter, was also connected to the system and a time ball was fitted to it which was visible from the river. A time ball is a sphere which slides up and down a vertical mast and can be abruptly dropped at an appointed hour. It was similar in all respects to that used at Greenwich and also at Portsmouth, which were also dropped at one o'clock. 

Chronometer makers and mariners could be seen assembling around the both points in Liverpool to check their instruments as the time balls fell at exactly one o'clock. As a further service to mariners the staff of Liverpool Observatory also rated and checked ships' chronometers over various temperatures. When the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board was established in 1858, it took over the responsibility for running the Observatory and when they decided to expand Waterloo Dock in the 1860s, they needed to find a new home for the Observatory. Mersey Docks already owned land on Bidston Hill, Wirral alongside the old lighthouse where observation was better, away from the smog of the town. George Fosbery Lyster drew up the first plans in 1864 and a new Observatory was completed in 1866 in time for Christmas, built on the top of Bidston Hill. The business of rating chronometers continued at the new Observatory where they took in ship's chronometers for calibration (or 'rating' ) and had additional duties to take continuous meteorological observations. This bread-and-butter work left the astronomer with time for his own research, enabling him to retain the respect of his peers. One of the earliest photographs of the moon was taken from Liverpool Observatory. 

However, with the new Observatory too far from the city for a time ball to be visible to all, a different solution was required, an audible signal. So in 1867, a cannon from the Crimean War was installed at Morpeth Dock, and connected to the Observatory by an electric cable. An accurate clock at the Observatory end was checked daily by the astronomer or his assistants. The staff continued to observe the passage of the stars with the aid of the transit telescope, which was situated, in the eastern dome of the Observatory, thus determining time. At one second to one o'clock the switch would be thrown at the Observatory, the firing being triggered by the next swing of the clock's pendulum. On clear days the flash from the cannon, with a gunner was in attendance, could be spotted from across the Mersey.

Timekeeping has always been an essential part of safe navigation. In mid-ocean, long before sighting land, the mariner must know the positions of both the ship and destination so that the ship's course may be calculated. When a ship called into port, one of the most useful things you could do for it was to give it an accurate fix on Greenwich Mean Time. The ship's captain would set his chronometer to Greenwich time before setting out to sea. As he travelled around the globe, he could get local time by observing the sun or the stars and could read Greenwich Mean Time off his chronometer. The difference between the two, multiplied by a certain number, gave the ship’s longitude east or west of Greenwich. Accurate time-keeping was the solution to the longitude problem. Having its own Observatory and dedicated astronomer, Liverpool could now claim that the time in Liverpool was just as accurate as the time in Greenwich itself.

One O'Clock Gun, Birkenhead

The original one o'clock gun was fired for the first time on 22nd September, 1867, and daily thereafter (except Sundays) and apart from a break during the Second World War.It was condemned in 1932, and later removed to the grounds of Bidston Observatory. This is the same cannon that can today be seen in the colonnades of the Albert Dock, near the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Another cannon, of which little is known, presumably served as a temporary replacement from the time when the original gun was condemned until a permanent replacement was found the following year. Following a public outcry at the prospect of the ending of this tradition, the War Office provided a new cannon, a 32-pounder from Woolwich Arsenal which was used from 1933 until World War II. Following the second world war, after a wartime silence of six and a half years, firing resumed in June 1946 using a 6-pounder naval Hodgkiss anti-aircraft gun. It was fired five days a week, Monday to Friday. In 1969 Bidston Observatory became a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council, concentrating on oceanographic research, and it was decided to discontinue the tradition of firing the One O'clock Gun on the grounds of efficiency.

The cannon situated on top of the gun-house at Morpeth Dock today is not the original one o'clock gun and is certainly not a 6-pounder Hodgkiss. The muzzle bore isn't right for a 32-pounder and it isn't known if it was ever fired. The gun that was fired on 18th July 2019, the fiftieth anniversary of the last firing, was by the Royal Artillery. Two days after its last firing in 1969, Apollo 11 would put a man on the moon.

The transit telescope is now in the Liverpool Museum. The clock used for the firing of the One O'Clock Gun remains on display at the Observatory (now known as the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory).

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/04/a-history-of-birkenhead.html