Good Directions

 Clocks are a key architectural feature in many parts of the world and not just for telling the time but as a symbol of power and importance helping to make buildings stand out from the crowd. It was this exact reason why ‘G-Enviro’ in The Middle East got in contact with us regarding the manufacturing of clocks. G-Enviro is a leading company in Telecom full turn-key projects and manufacturer of traditional and non-traditional supporting structures. As part of the unusual structures they create to mask unsightly telecom masts, they were looking for large clocks to create a focal point.   ‘G-Enviro’ enquired all around the globe for who was the best manufacturer of large exterior clocks and after extensive research they decided that they wanted to work with a UK manufacturer and after discussing their needs with various companies they chose ‘Good Directions Ltd’. Having looked at our selection of clock dials they chose our Skeleton bezel clocks for their traditional style,...

As exterior clock and clock tower manufacturers this is a question that we are asked all the time and there are many good reasons why we use GRP. A Good Directions GRP clock tower on a cricket score board As exterior clock and clock tower manufacturers this is a question that we are asked all the time and there are many good reasons why we use GRP.    An abbreviation for 'glass reinforced polyester', GRP is a light, durable and astonishingly tough constructional material, which can be moulded and fabricated into all manner of products. When manufacturing our clock towers in GRP one side is first hand crafted in Ash timber from which a mould tool is produced. Ash timber is used for the original pattern to ensure the finished product has a beautiful realistic wood grain, unique to Good Directions clock towers, making them the most realistic looking on the market. An oxford style cupola with Traditional style clock and a rooster style copper weat...

  Press Release Photograph By Alton Towers Good Directions LTD had the honour and absolute pleasure of working alongside the Creative Director of Alton Towers, John Burton to manufacture and produce a 1900mm dial for the newly opened ‘World of David Walliams’ at Alton Towers theme park, bringing the story of ‘Gangsta Granny’ to life.   This enormous clock was designed by John Burton and closely following his design we produced a piece which has swiftly become one of our favourites. Using a variety of materials, cutting-edge technology and techniques, we have produced a clock which will be seen by thousands, if not millions of people for years to come.   Foam pieces cut out on the Waterjet being sprayed The large dial is all in gold, with vinyl being used to create the desired effect. This clock also features raised numerals, which were cut out of foam PVC sheet on our waterjet. We chose to use this PVC as it is lightweight, durable, and best of all waterproof, ...

  Team Eleven Clock Bespoke Clock Installed Outside Customers Office. We at GoodDirections take immense pride in our work and always go above and beyond to make sure we are at the forefront of innovation and able to produce the latest and greatest time pieces. We recently had the absolute pleasure to work with Team Eleven, a marketing company based up in Bradford Upon Avon, who were looking for a bespoke and unique clock for their workplace building which would not only stand out in the busy hustle and bustle of the high street but would also look stylish and inviting enough to attract new customers and clients. Working off a design which they provided to us, we produced this double-sided drum clock , which houses two fantastic acrylic dials. The primary focal point of this clock was to highlight the number eleven on the clock faces. The purpose of this was to not only create synergy with their own brand name ‘Team Eleven’, but also provided a look and feel which is sleek and ...

  The Engineers In Production.   One of our recent on-site installations for our customer over at Tattershall Lake Country Park, for which we produced and fitted a 1000mm square bezel clock overlooking the swimming pool. This particular dial was produced and manufactured in the style of Art Deco, taking inspiration from an original 1920’s clock. The clock, although based on an existing design, had specific chosen colours by the customer, to give off the appropriate aesthetic. This dial was fitted with a CL200 Mechanism and a resynchroniser to ensure that the clock will change within appropriate seasonal time changes. Additionally, the dial was back illuminated allowing for visibility in both day and night-time. This clock is proudly displayed on the side of the building providing all staff and customers with accurate time any hour of the day. For more information and to see our full range of clocks and all services which we provide, please visit our website for more. We...

In 2012 local residents in Burley held many fund raising activities to celebrate the Queens diamond jubilee. When all the celebrations were over the Parish Council were left with a small surplus of money and decided to ask the residents what they would like to do with it. T he majority view had a leaning towards providing something permanent for the village, which would mark the Queens Jubilee, be sympathetic to the environment and benefit the village as a whole. The Parish Council gave the community the opportunity to put forward ideas on what shape this would take and the idea of a clock on the form of a village sign was suggested and received popular support. The project has taken place under the leadership of Councillor Neal Martin, who contacted Good Directions to work with local artist Suzan Houching who has been involved in the design aspects of the clock. It was important to ensure that the design was a true reflection of the village and captured the essence of Burl...

 Clock celebrating 100th episode of Grand Designs  This autumn Channel 4's flagship design show reached its 100 th episode and Kevin McCloud launched his book '100 Best Grand Designs'. So what better way to celebrate such miles stones, at the Grand Designs Live exhibition in the NEC, than with custom designed clocks for the event. Clock features have often been used over the decades not just to note the passing of time but also to celebrate it. Clocks of all styles and sizes have often been erected to commemorate Coronations and Jubilee's, as memorials to fallen heroes, denote anniversaries, celebrate centenaries or mark a special event such as at this exhibition. Central to the show is the 'Grand Theatre' for which we designed a modern clock sculpture. Featuring two clock faces on a blue sphere supported by six sweeping stainless steel legs, the clock feature was surrounded by matching stainless steel seating. The clocks were controlled by ...

Good Directions manufactured skeleton style clock to suit stonework Good Directions Ltd has restored a clock on the retained façade of an old grammar school building in Banbury to mark the site’s £9.7 million redevelopment of the Stanbridge Hall building into a housing scheme for the over-55s. The clock began ticking again during a special ceremony where representatives from the involved organisations met at the site, which in now complete and known as Stanbridge House. Starting the clock at a special ceremony Planners were keen to retain elements of the site’s former use, planning its interior design to reflect previous features, as well as the cleaning and restoring the original façade, including re-instating the clock . We were asked to manufacture a Skeleton style clock on a white backing to exactly fit the original decorative stonework on the building, with an extended shaft to house the mechanism the other side of the wall. The replacement clock is fitted with our cl...

New shop front complemented with a custom designed clock Gift Retailer of the year 'Temptation' decided to celebrate winning this year by giving its Amersham store a face lift. Having had one of their stores in Amersham for over 20 years they decided they would like to give something back to the community and designed a large exterior clock matching their corporate style, to take pride of place above the shop front. The beautiful deep green colour used throughout their stores and on their website could be matched perfectly for the GRP clock (as can any colour with a matching BS or RAL code). Gold hands and numerals were chosen for the clock in a clear and simple design to match the typeface used on the shop signage. Clocks are still a very popular addition to any shop front hoping to stand out from the crowd. Clocks always seem to have a magnetism that catches the eye in a way that simply a shop name cannot do. The 'shop with a clock' makes for a memorable pla...

Good Directions Ltd have manufactured a large scale version of a gold pocket watch to create a centre piece in a Wetherspoons pub. To see a video of our manufacturing process please click on this link: http://youtu.be/QHaEIYLXDjI

Clock for school in Azerbaijan  Setting a machine    Good Directions Ltd recently moved to new premises in Botley, Hampshire to expand in-house manufacturing capabilities. As a family owned British company we are world leaders in the design, manufacture and installation of Exterior Clocks, Roof Turrets, GRP Structures and Copper Guttering. When moving to our new building we also took the fantastic opportunity of taking over a local engineering company, including their seven highly skilled staff and precision CNC machines for our new workshops. Our new 15,500 sq ft unit has been designed to cope with our growing manufacturing capabilities including large purpose built metal fabrication and CNC machine workshops, together with more offices offering the latest in computer technology, enabling us to provide a complete design service using the latest in 2D and 3D CAD CAM technology to customers wishing to create unique products.  Welding radius gutter   Technicians ...

 Sales Advisors - Melanie (left) Maria (right)  At Good Directions Ltd we are lucky enough to have loyal staff that have been with us for many years, including two of our Sales Advisors - Melanie Cassie (who has been with us for eleven years) and Maria Rudd (who has been with us for five years.) Last year we were pleased to offer them both the opportunity to work through an NVQ and an Apprenticeship in Customer Services so that they could both obtain qualifications to support the work that they do every day. Having put in an enormous amount of effort, hours of study and thousands of words into their case studies, we are pleased to say that both have passed with flying colours and have now received their certificates. Both staff deal with our customers every day helping to quote our many products including exterior clocks, clock towers, weathervanes and copper guttering. For more information on all our products please visit our website http://www.good-directions.co.uk/ or contact...

Good Directions Ltd were pleased to see that 'Ecclesiastical and Heritage World' magazine chose their Big Ben replica, manufactured for the new signature room in Harrods, to feature in their latest issue of the magazine. The scaled version of Big Ben stands 2.4m high and replicates exactly the four clock faces, with their black numerals and gold detailing, back illumination and chiming system programmed to mark each quarter of an hour and strike on the hour. The clocks are also fitted with a state of the art controller to automatically change all four clocks at the summer and winter time changes and deal with any power failures that may occur. To read the article in full you can see it clearly on their website: http://www.ecclesiasticalandheritageworld.co.uk/component/content/article/399 Also to see other examples of our clocks please visit: http://www.exterior-clocks.co.uk/ or for our full range of products visit: http://www.good-directions.co.uk/ For any enquiries please con...

 Maria (left) Dave, Melanie and Georgia On Friday Good Directions joined in the national 'Wear it Pink Day' by wearing pink clothes to work and donating £2 each to the breast cancer campaign. We also played the 'guess the next item on the washing line' game that was included in the charity pack. The organiser of the pink day (Rosalie) chose what she would next put on the washing line and everyone had to pay £1 to have a guess, with half the money raised going to the charity and the winner receiving the other half of the money. At the end of the day it was reveiled that Maria had chosen the correct item (a pair of knickers) but kindly donated her winnings to the charity instead of keeping it. Overall Good Directions Ltd staff raised well over £500 for the very worthy cause so a big well done and thank you to all the staff. To find out more about Good Directions Ltd please visit our website http://www.good-directions.co.uk/ . 

 New Factory and Head Office in Botley Hampshire  Good Directions Ltd is a world leader in the design, construction and installation of Exterior Clocks, Cupolas, GRP Structures and Weathervanes. Our Head Office and factory is based in Botley, Hampshire where we recently increased our in-house production capabilities by enlarging our metal fabrication workshop and employing new staff. It quickly became apparent that the premises we had could no longer cope with our requirements and we have now purchased a new unit nearby increasing our space from 3,500 sq ft to over 10,500 sq ft. Increased in-house metal fabrication workshop facilities The new unit has been designed to cope with our growing manufacturing capabilities including large purpose built metal fabrication and machine workshops, together with more offices offering the latest in computer technology, enabling us to provide a complete design service using the latest in 2D and 3D CAD CAM technology to customers wishing to crea...

Having been with Good Directions Ltd for ten years now we were pleased to present Alan Gingell, our newly appointed General Manager, with a clock to celebrate his time with the company and to mark his recent promotion. Alan studied Art, Design, Accountancy and Business Studies at College before joining Spectrum Signs in 1994 as a trainee sign maker designing, manufacturing and installing signage nationwide. Skills acquired by means of both traditional hand tools and state-of-the-art CAD CAM systems. In 1997 Alan joined global sign maker Fast Signs as a graphic designer and sign maker in their Southampton branch and in 1998 was made branch co-ordinator covering all aspects of running the business. In March 2001 Alan joined Good Directions as a Production & Installation Technician to work within our newly accuired signage company ‘Swift Signs’ as well as helping with design and production elements within the core business. Alan's hard work and skills has seen him...