A long lost Southampton landmark that was a feature of everyday life in the city for decades has been re-discovered.

The Daily Echo clock, a familiar sight for so many local people, has been tracked down after being missing for years following the demolition of the newspaper's old offices in Above Bar.

Even to this day the newspaper regularly receives inquiries from readers, who still miss the clock, wanting to know what happened to it but no one really knew its fate, that is until now.

For years it was considered gone, thought to have been destroyed or thrown away with all the rest of the debris and rubble from the premises, but then last week the newspaper received a telephone call from Southampton Docks.

Tucked away in an old store in the city's Western Docks was "something'' the Daily Echo might be interested in seeing again, was the message from the port.

It was the clock! The newspaper and the timepiece have been re-united once more.

From the mid-1950s the clock was a distinctive feature of the building, which stood alongside Spa Road until it was demolished to make way for the entrance of the WestQuay shopping centre.

Over the years not only did the clock tell the time but it acted as a prominent meeting place. It became a well known saying: "I'll meet you under the Echo clock.''

Now six years after the Daily Echo opened its present publishing and printing centre in Nursling the clock has found its way back home again.

It may be a bit battered and bruised since being taken down from the wall of 45, Above Bar, but essentially the clock is in good shape although its original electronic mechanism is no longer working.

Stewart Dunn, Hampshire managing director of Newsquest, the Daily Echo's parent company, said: "The clock was always a prominent feature of our old Above Bar building, so it's wonderful to see it again and I am sure there are many people who will be pleased to know that it is still around.

"We have not yet decided the exact future for the clock as it has only been back with us a few days but it is now being carefully restored to its full glory.'' According to the docks the clock first surfaced some time ago in an old long-term storage area near 25 berth in the Eastern Docks and was then moved over to a building at the Western Docks.

Workers in the docks kept an eye on it realising that it could be something special and made sure that it was not thrown away. Then when it was properly identified the Daily Echo was contacted.

It was in November 1955 that the clock made its first appearance when Lord Mountbatten officially open the then new Daily Echo offices in Above Bar.