A HUGE historic clock could end up on the University of York's extended campus, after architects behind City of York Council's new headquarters turned it down.

The Press reported in 2008 that the clock – once situated on the water tower of the former Naburn Hospital – was being offered as the centrepiece for the new council HQ, which was at that time planned for Hungate.

But then the council abandoned the Hungate plans and decided instead to establish its HQ in West Offices off Station Rise.

The Lord Mayor and councillors of York had commissioned the city's master clock maker G F J Newey to build the four-dial clock at a cost of £185 and it had ticked for 85 years until the hospital closed in 1988, making way for the York Designer Outlet.

A small group of volunteers persuaded a reluctant health authority in 1989 that the clock should be saved prior to the demolition of the water tower, and it has been in safe storage by the Naburn Clock Group ever since.

Group spokesman Roger Raimes said that after the council decided to create its new HQ at West Offices, the group had continued to offer the clock to the authority and a presentation had been made to its architects.

He said they had looked at the idea of putting some of the clock faces on walls but eventually decided against the idea, and the group had then offered it to the university for use on its Heslington East new campus. This was currently under consideration by the university.

A university spokesman said it was very grateful for the Naburn Clock Group’s offer, adding: ‘‘We are still discussing the feasibility of a number of potential locations for the clock, but those discussions are not yet concluded.’’