This is the bizarre 推論する／理由 that explains why so many supermarkets have a clock tower: RONAN O'REILLY

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From red telephone boxes to 二塁打-decker buses, some designs are quintessentially English. Yet, にもかかわらず 存在 native to our green and pleasant land, one 重要な architectural feature goes almost unnoticed.

I'm referring to the ubiquitous quirk that is the clock tower. Not just any clock tower but the one that ぼんやり現れるs over so many of our supermarkets and shopping centres.

From a Tesco in Swindon and another in the Wiltshire town of Trowbridge, to a Morrisons 近づく Nottingham and a Blackburn shopping centre, 関わりなく where you are in England, there will almost certainly be a 小売 出口 nearby 誇るing one of these 独特の structures.

But why do so many 商業の spaces have clock towers built in at all? The explanation is bizarre and little-known, and 要求するs us to turn 支援する the 手渡すs of time...

When planners were 製図／抽選 up a 詳細な計画 for the new town of South Woodham Ferrers in 1977, they were 強いるd to follow 指示／教授／教育 from the Essex Design Guide published by 会議 長，指導者s three years 以前.

It meant that 計画（する）s for an Asda supermarket next to the town square could only proceed if '明確な／細部 Essex 特徴' were 会社にする／組み込むd into the design.

Architects duly submitted a 提案 that 含むd a 14th-century barn-type facade and a Victorian-style clock tower ? both thought to have been 奮起させるd by 類似の structures in the town of Coggeshall, 15 miles away.

Planning 長，指導者s gave it the go-ahead and the first-ever 'Essex barn' supermarket ? 完全にする with that mouldbreaking clock tower ? opened the に引き続いて year. によれば a Historic England blog, the design 'with its 広範囲にわたる clay-tiled pitched roof... 言及／関連d 中世 tithe barns' ? the buildings used to 在庫／株 the one-tenth 株 of 農業の produce that 農業者s were 強いるd to を引き渡す to church 公式の／役人s.

The first clock tower on a supermarket, Asda South Woodham in Essex - built in 1978 to match the town centre's facade

A clock-towered Tesco 蓄える／店 in Swindon, Wiltshire

Bosses at Asda were so pleased with their architects' handiwork that they couldn't stop telling everyone about it. 'If you're of the opinion that a superstore means an eyesore,' ran one self-祝賀の blurb, 'we hope the 証拠 from South Woodham Ferrers will make you think twice.'

It didn't end there. While the design was 'tailor-made for one community', says YouTube filmmaker Chris Spargo, it was turned into 'a template that was pasted across the nation' throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

As Historic England 公式文書，認めるs: '競争相手 retailers 再生するd the same style with 変化させるing degrees of success.'

述べるing the 'pastiche English farm buildings' that started popping up across the landscape, academic Audrey Kirby said: 'The style 示すd an important turning point in the design of supermarket buildings and lasted for almost 20 years.'

In 言及／関連 to the South Woodham Ferrers 開発, Dr Kirby ? 令状ing in a University of the Arts London doctoral 論題／論文 on the history of supermarket design ? 公式文書，認めるd that 'its 初期の 目的 was to blend in with the surrounding 田舎の landscape'.?

But, in a comment that may explain why the 判型 became so 普及した, she also 発言／述べるd that 'かもしれない the design 供給するd the 顧客s with a classless feeling of 慰安, 安全, wholesomeness and 繁栄'.

It was certainly popular with the supermarket 巨大（な）s. Of the 28 new Tesco 蓄える／店s built in 1991, 23 of them had clock towers. 古記録 文書s from the same year show Sainsbury's bosses 発言／述べるing on how their new 蓄える／店 in Rustington 'looks すぐに at home まっただ中に the 青葉 of Sussex countryside', with its 'high gables and roof tower'.

Even as Morrisons started moving に向かって more modern-style buildings in the late 1990s, Dr Kirby wrote how the late Sir Ken Morrison ? then chairman of the chain ? '主張するd that his 蓄える／店s 保持する the clock tower as a 支配的な feature'.

A barn-形態／調整d Tesco with a clock in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

As Morrisons started moving に向かって more modern-style buildings in the late 1990s, Dr Kirby wrote how the? chairman '主張するd that his 蓄える／店s 保持する the clock tower as a 支配的な feature' (Pictured: A Morrisons in Nottingham)

Of course, hard-nosed pragmatism undoubtedly played a part 同様に. The simple fact of having a clock tower served 'to 示す the position of the 蓄える／店' for the surrounding 全住民, Dr Kirby 公式文書，認めるd, and it had been a 手段 'used in the past by architects of churches or 市民の buildings'.

By the time the new millennium 夜明けd, the Essex barn style was making way for cheaper, easier-to-建設する supermarkets 伴う／関わるing lots of glass and steel.

Which just goes to show that supermarket designers have short memories. For it was the soulless, utilitarian design of the 初めの hypermarkets that created the clock-tower （激しい）反発 in the first p lace. Perhaps predictably, this style was introduced to Britain by the Americans. US 小売 巨大（な） GEM opened the UK's first 辛勝する／優位-of-town superstore in West Bridgford, a 郊外 south of Nottingham, in November 1964.

It took just ten weeks to get the 80,000 sq ft 前提s ? 述べるd as 似ているing a 'long windowless box' ? built and 在庫／株d in time for the grand 開始.

And what a grand 開始 it was. The honours on the big day were 成し遂げるd by 社債 girl Shirley Eaton, who just two months earlier had famously appeared covered in gold paint in the 007 film Goldfinger.

Around 30,000 people …に出席するd the 開始する，打ち上げる and, によれば a newspaper 報告（する）／憶測, the 蓄える／店 'had to be の近くにd several times to （疑いを）晴らす the 集まり of shoppers through the 支払う／賃金-out 反対するs'.

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Plenty more 広大な, 選び出す／独身-storey shopping emporiums soon followed. Yet, when it （機の）カム to the look of these new-style 設立s, not everyone was smitten.By 1973, celebrated architectural critic Lance Wright was making the most withering comments imaginable about their design. 'The retailers, if left to themselves, 明確に choose the image of the 集中 （軍の）野営地，陣営,' he once 発言／述べるd somewhat distastefully.

In a 最近の ビデオ, Chris Spargo 公式文書，認めるs: '早期に supermarkets were based on designs from America and, for a while, the novelty of the 蓄える／店 that sells everything was enough to make people look past the ugly exterior. Once they started to build them, people seemed to flock to them.

'But, as the 1970s rolled around, it was getting harder to get them built in the first place. People didn't like the way they looked.'

In the 合間, explains Spargo, '地元の 会議s were starting to become やめる unco-operative' when it （機の）カム to 認めるing planning 許可. '明確に a new design was going to be needed, but what could it be?'

Cue the construction of that Asda 蓄える／店 in a little-known 位置／汚点／見つけ出す 近づく Chelmsford in Essex. And, almost half a century on, the 遺産／遺物 of that 開拓するing 事業／計画（する） in South Woodham Ferrers remains all around us.

Even today, as Chris Spargo points out, there are still 'occasionally' 提案するd new supermarkets featuring clock towers in their design. 'It's 肉親，親類d of an 推定する／予想するd thing now,' he 追加するs wryly.