The Clock Warehouse

The Clock Warehouse is a former corn warehouse, dating from 1780. It was converted around 1970 into a museum and tea rooms, and is now a public house. The building is constructed of red brick with brick and stone dressings, and has a red plain tile roof with a central louvred vent, and a projecting hoist roof to the north. It is four storeys high and five bays wide, with a wide, slightly advanced, gabled central bay.

The east elevation features a full-width segmental brick arch with a stone hoodmould and key-block in the centre bay. Segment-headed door cases with plank doors flank the arch, the northern door having an insurance plaque above. To either side are three-storey segment-headed hoist doorways with timber lintels, now completely glazed. Above the central arch is a fixed small-pane window, below a flat brick arch with a stone key-block. Segment-headed windows are located to either side. Similar windows are arranged above, with a small oval painted plaque inscribed '1780' positioned between them. Above again there is a similar window to the central bay, the keystone of which runs into a plain band across the gable at eaves level. Two flat-headed, two-light windows sit below the eaves. A large painted sign reading 'From the Trent to the Mersey' is positioned below the central window, and another sign inscribed 'Navigation' is above it, topped by a clock face set in a circular stone surround. The north elevation has a two-storey segment-headed hoist doorway to the first and second floors, with a small segment-headed window above, and the hoist structure overhead. The west elevation is similar to the east, but the outer bays feature segment-headed windows instead of large doorways.

The interior retains the original floors and timbers.

This warehouse is one of the earliest in a series, built after the completion of the Trent and Mersey Canal when Shardlow was a thriving inland port. A spur from the canal once allowed narrow boats to unload directly into the building via the central arch.