Out & About November 2017

OA feature

and it’s just amazing that the winding mechanisms still worked. The shaft was set up in the lathe and skimmed to remove the wear and housing was made to suit the

of converting the escapement to a pendulum would have been well within their capabilities. There are very few verge-foliot clocks still in existence. There is one at Cotehele House near Saltash, Cornwall, which is completely original. You will also find one in the nave of Salisbury Cathedral – this is thought to be the oldest working example in the UK, with an unsubstantiated date of 1386. However, the actual foliot escapement is a modern addition. During my research of the clock, I came across a totally original verge foliot clock, which has certain features that are similar to the St Bartholomew clock. This clock is in the British Museum and dated 1600-1620. It was found in Dover Castle in 1851. Thomas Crofts, senior, is listed working 1759 to 1789, maker of clock watches and turret clocks. He had premises in Northbrook Street and eventually went into partnership with his son Thomas, who had premises in Bartholomew Street. The company was eventually granted a license to trade in Newbury in 1797. In 1827, Crofts charged 15 shillings to clean the clock in the alms houses and also around this time they made the clock for Kimbers Almshouses in Cheap Street for £65 (now demolished). John Joyce was born a little later, in March 1813, the son of a Boxford farmer. He is listed as working at 46 Northbrook Street, 1839 to 1866, employinig two clock makers and one apprentice, Edward Frome, born in Buckinghamshire. In 1866, Joyce moved to Donnington Square having passed on the busines to Alfred Stradling. John Joyce was well known as a

1972 by JD Owen, HV Beer and WJ Hassell, a local plumber. For a turret

Left, the turret clock face before it was restored and above left after

clock to run for 45 years with very few problems is quite remarkable and is a credit to their workmanship. However, after running for so many years the clock now needed a complete overhaul, which included the dial that had suffered badly from the effects of the weather. The job of making a new dial was undertaken by Chris Hardy at his joinery works. The wood he used is called Accoya, which has remarkable levels of stability and is also resistant to rot and warping. The actual painting of the dial and gilded roman numerals is the work of Paul Hetherton from Froxfield and is again a superb job, which should last for many years to come. Chris assembled the scaffolding and remounted the dial with the valuable help from his father Dave. And now the techy bits It was found that all the bearings had excessive wear and some had worn completely through onto the wrought-iron frame, this meant that all the shafts had to be skimmed in a lathe to remove the wear. In addition, new bearing bushes had to be made to suit. In order to prolong the life of the bearings, I chose to use a high-quality phosphor bronze instead of brass, which is the usual material used. The winding drum itself is not original, as at some time in the past the shaft has been cut off and forced in to a replacement wooden drum. This crude repair has become loose creating a massive hole in the wooden drum

restored shaft. It was also found that a steel sleeve, which had been welded to the frame was being used as a front end bearing of the drum, along with a steel spacer, plus a horseshoe-shaped piece of brass rod. The actual job of reassembling the clock was not without its problems, mainly due to the clock frame not being square. An additional challenged I faced was that it was not possible to take the entire clock home to work on. This, of course, meant that there was quite a bit of backwards and forwrds to my home to make the necessary adjustments. However, after about a month of intense work and long hours the clock is now running and seems to be keeping good time. I consider it to be an honour and a privilege to have been asked to restore the clock. a very interesting project, even if it was quite stressful at times. 

local preacher and died in 1896. Repairing the clock

There is a brass plaque mounted next to the clock, which states that it was restored in

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