INTEREST has arisen regarding the excellent model of the Isle of Man steamship, The Viking, which was on display in a glass case for many years on Platform Two of Blackburn Railway Station - as recalled by Mr S Holmes (Letters, November 18), who asks what became of it.

The Viking is the property of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company which commissioned the model and presented it, on loan, for promotional purposes, to the station.

In view of the increase in vandalism and anti-social behaviour, it was decided, very wisely, to remove the model to the safer environs of Blackburn Museum, where it remained on display for a number of years until recently, when at the end of last August, the owners came to reclaim their prized possession.

It is intended to exhibit The Viking and other items for a museum in Douglas, Isle of Man, relative to the history of the company's operations.

Consequently, I am reminded that the time is long overdue for Blackburn to reclaim the clock mechanism of the town's ever-lamented Market Hall clock tower, demolished in December, 1964.

The novel 'rise and fall' ball on the weathervane pole was left to be destroyed in the rubble.

Mysteriously, the clock was given to a museum in Liverpool , when it had been agreed for it to be installed in the tower of St John's Church, Blackburn.

J MARSDEN, Scarborough Road, Blackburn.

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