Talking Telford: Taking a dip into the quaint history of Telford's famous timepiece
In the heart of Telford, strange things are happening right over our heads that offer a glimpse into a quainter past - things involving soap bubbles, elaborate metal mechanisms and one of the biggest frogs on the planet.
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Of course I’m talking about the ‘frog clock’, one of Telford’s more characterful public art projects (and we’ve got plenty of those - have you seen the roundabouts?). This bizarre machine (officially known as the Telford Time Machine) hangs over an open square in Telford’s main shopping centre in two parts: a charming facsimile of a hot air balloon on one side and a whimsical scene on the other featuring an enormous green frog sitting atop the clock, the two parts joined by a huge metal rail with a wheel running between.
It does more than tell the time: at 30-minute intervals, a halo of metal leaves fans out behind the frog while a wheel with a cup atop transports a gold-plated ball from the hot air balloon across to the giant amphibian, the frog opening its mouth and croaking forth a stream of bubbles all the while.