Pakenham Memorial, Main Street, Crumlin, Co Antrim

The Pakenham Memorial is a late Victorian clock tower built in 1897. It stands as a distinctive landmark within the village and commemorates the acts of kindness and generosity of Reverend Arthur H. Pakenham J.P. of Langford Lodge. The tower is square with a battered base of blackstone and sandstone quoins, topped by a pyramidal copper roof. The walls are of rubble basalt with sandstone quoins, rising to circular corner pinnacles. The upper stage is constructed of regularly coursed, roughly faced sandstone, featuring a circular clock on each face, framed by a triplet of louvred, segmental-headed openings in sandstone ashlar. A moulded sandstone cornice sits between the corner pinnacles, culminating in a steeply pitched pyramidal copper roof with a copper weathervane finial. All four faces are largely identical except for a small, deeply recessed rectangular doorway in plain stone reveals with a cement-rendered step and a timber panelled door on the east side, and an inscribed plaque on the west side. The plaque reads: “Erected by the friends of the Revd Arthur H. Pakenham J.P. (of Langford Lodge) to commemorate his many acts of kindness and generosity. 1897.” The tower is situated on a narrow, grassy bank between the main road (that passes over a railway bridge) and a slip road leading to the railway yard. A low rubble basalt retaining wall borders the bank on the north side, while mature hedges provide a boundary along the pavement and bridge on the south side. The architect remains unrecorded.