Hey there,

I've just moved to Sheffield, and while walking through the centre of town outside Virgin this afternoon at 1pm, some horrendous claxon sounded from one of the buildings. I can't remember where it came from but it had a sign next to it reading "1 o clock warning siren"

What on EARTH is that all about?

It's to let you know it's 1 o'clock

Haha! :P

Yeah, but surely the bells from the tower right next door to it are much nicer and less bizzare.

Why only at 1 o'clock? Who needs warning about 1 o'clock? Confused! :(

I believe it signals the end of the classic lunch hour

It's on the H L Brown jewellery shop building. It's there as a time check to you can adjust your watches (they do sell watches there you know!)

Surely there's no way one retailer would be allowed to cause such a rumpus in the town centre for the sake of publicising their wares? I'd always fancied the idea (as mentioned above) that it was some kind of "traditional" announcement that it was time to down tools for lunch and head off to a cosy pub.

Shame that all the cosy pubs are now neon-and-sub-woofer-obsessed "bars" .......

I really have no idea what this is all about. I have must have ventured into our city centre several million times in my life-time, and I have never heard a claxon, not at any time, never mind at one-o'clock in the afternoon.....

...I suspect World War Three must have started this afternoon at one-o'clock, and this was a warning to hit the pavement quickly.

Of course, if my theory is correct - and it sounds very plausible - this will be all over now, the world as we knew it will a giant burnt poppadum and so logically we are now residing on planet Earth mark two in a parallel universe.

I never even felt the move!

Amazing stuff.

Make an effort to be on Fargate at 13:00 - you'll soon know the klaxon thing. If you look above the jeweller's, there's a small red and white sign next to it (last time it made me jump anyway)

It was probably connected to the fact that it was Maundy Thursday. I found the following about Catholic Traditions on Maundy Thursday.

Silencing the Bells: all the bells in Rome are mute from about half-past eleven on Thursday morning till the same time on Saturday. During this period of two days, such is the force of the custom, that hand-bells, usually employed in hotels to be rung for dinner, are silent. So likewise bells rung for school remain mute. As a substitute for bells, it is the practice to use a kind of wooden clappers, or troccola. These are in the form of wooden boxes, with some interior mechanism turned by a handle, so as to make a disagreeable clattering noise. This species of troccole is said to have been used anciently by the Greeks. The silencing of the bells—a signal comfort to the ears in some parts of Rome—being prescribed in ancient rituals, is thus enforced as one of the old customs of the church.

Not being Catholic myself I can't be sure that I am making a correct assumption here, perhaps someone else can confirm or correct me but it seems logical to me that it could be connected.

Not really connected with Easter, it goes off every day.

It's just one of those Sheffield things. There used to be loads of hooters (as we call 'em around these parts) that went off at 1pm to signify the end of lunch (or "snap").

The one at Browns used to be on the other corner (Where Virgin is now) until they moved across the road when Orchard Sq was developed.

Anyone remember the one that used to go off in Burncross at the foundry?

It'll be to remind everybody that unfortunately their dinner hour is over and GET BACK TO WORK!

Could anyone explain the reason for the 1.00pm siren that sounds near the Virgin Megastore?

It is coming from the jewellers across the road. I'm not sure but think that it was the signal that lunch time was over, years ago.

Something akin to the 1pm gun shot in Edinburgh?

Mod: Merged threads

Originally posted by hotphil


Shame that all the cosy pubs are now neon-and-sub-woofer-obsessed "bars" .......

Hmm, try the Brown Bear.

Maybe it was the council checking their 'air raid' warning siren. Its a legal requirement you know :)

Why not nip in to the jewellers and ask. Then come on here and put us all out of our misery

Originally posted by KangaREW
Could anyone explain the reason for the 1.00pm siren that sounds near the Virgin Megastore?
I'ts the same one:loopy:

It used to be High Noon but they got done by the Trades Description Act from the film of the same name so they changed it to One o'clock.

Anyone remember the one that used to go off in Burncross at the foundry?

I lived at Chapeltown when I was a sprog. We had a new kid arrive on the street and managed to persuade him that the siren meant that the local dam had burst and was going to flood Chapeltown. We told him to run home to his mom and tell her to take cover in the highest room in the house - preferably the loft. He ended up dashing home to tell her in floods of tears. Ah, the fun we had.

(He later became one of my best buds, so all was forgiven).

There's one on the old police station in Woodhouse and the siren was to supposedly alert the flood gate control at Woodhouse Mill to lower the dam gate.

Why they couldn't phone I don't know.

What the hell is that hooter that goes off at 1pm?

Sorry - i ment to say that it goes off in the city centre near GAP.

To remind those poor souls locked in the Town Hall dungeons that another day has passed?

This was asked before... give me a sec to find the thread.

aahh the possible terrorists that they have locked up!!!

Its a tradition, old charter or somthing.

Its been going for decades.

It goes off eveytime another outrageously stupid idea is passed in Town Hall! :D

What, only once a day then? Surely not :P :clap:

As far as I know, it's to signal lunch hour for the workers..

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9525

this is a similar one from earlier this year..

its above the jewellers on the corner and has a sign above it that says "the 1'clock siren" , i dont know why its there maybe it used to be an air raid siren or something .

So it's just to let you set your pocket watch by? Like the Greenwich ball so the ships can set their clock?

threads merged

cheers richynomates