Forums Forums Wirral Information Ask - Wiki Wirral Owl telescopes

Owl telescopes, the tubular, usually bright blue, 20p coin accepting things that can be found all around Britain's coast, including the Wirral. These came to my attention the other day, as I was walking along the Seacombe promenade. I've never noticed them before because they've been there all my life. I took note of the label reading "Owl Telescopes Crewe Cheshire" and entered that into the internet, but it yielded no results. If anyone out there can tell me anything about these telescopes, who they were made by, were they came from then that would be great. Thanks! P.S. I'm not sure if the image will display properly, I'm kind of new to this.

Do they still work ? One at west kirby. Seem to remember from years ago the view always looked poor and hazy...all the sea spray perhaps. Maybe they were an extension of what the butler saw machines . a nice piece of our heritage.

i presume so, never saw anyone emptying them though so some may be full of old 20p's, though in saying that i used to put 1p coins in and they worked. back when i was a scoundrelous youth

The surname of the owner was Howle and hence the Owl name.

What a marvellous word.

Only info i could find


The Owl Telescope was originally invented by Mr. Tawny Owl of Crewe in Cheshire, the eldest son of the Owl and the Pussycat. His mother was actually a second cousin of the Cheshire Cat on her mother's side; the renowned Crewe branchline of the family. His father was one of the Barnes Owls. The parents' romantic sea voyage and moonlit wedding were immortalized in verse by the writer and artist Edward Lear (1812 – 1888) who was a close friend of the couple.

Thanks for posting! I was just wondering if anyone knew anything more about these telescopes, I tested the blue one down by the derby pool (Harvster, pub) and it worked fine, although it did look as if the coin collection hatch had been painted over but it was kind of hard to tell. I noticed the coin-box was enscripted with the words "ESSEX ENGINEERING NELSON RD WANSTEAD LONDON. E.11 ENGLAND". When I typed this into the internet I found that " Essex Engneering" is a small 50- year-old family owned company employing about 35 people to make mechanical coin-boxes. I figured if they are using a small family owned company to supply the mechanisms for their telescopes then I don't think "Owl Telescopes" were a particularly big business.

What a pity you've suggested they may be packed with 20p (and 1p) coins. No doubt the local youth will now set about emptying them.

Truly scoundrelous behaviourhttps://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/images/icons/default_dark/grin.gif

No idea what happened to my previous post, all that code was supposed to be a smiley face.

What a pity you've suggested they may be packed with 20p (and 1p) coins. No doubt the local youth will now set about emptying them.

Truly scoundrelous