Friday 17 September 2010

Making time for clocks

Every so often our longcase (grandfather) clock becomes temperamental. It doesn't matter how much you coax the old thing it simply refuses to tick for longer than a few hours. It has been in one of its moods this week and so on Wednesday I threatened it with the auction sale room and left it to sulk. I later gave it one last chance to behave and would you believe it, the wise old thing has been ticking ever since.


From being a child I've loved old clocks and have gathered a few around me over the years. The longcase is the oldest. It dates from 1810 so would have been around in Jane Austen's time. I like to imagine the man of the house winding it every week and often wonder if he also had to tolerate its temperamental nature.

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This fellow resides in our computer room and dates from the 1860s. For much of its life it hung high up on a classroom wall. Over the years a great many teachers and children must have listened to the slow tick tock and watched the old hands gradually moving closer towards the sounding of the hometime bell.

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And here is my granny's clock. My dad remembers it ticking the hours away in the farm house parlour when he was a boy. Granny had left the farm by the time I came along and I remember this old timepiece hanging over her dresser. So many memories, I was delighted to inherit it.

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This large mantel clock belonged to my husband's grandad and it lives in our garden room. It has a lovely quiet tick but a very loud chime which can really startle you at times.

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Made in Germany's Black Forest region we bought this cuckoo clock soon after we were married. When young our children were fascinated by it and used to sit nervously waiting for the cuckoo to pop out of the door and 'do his thing'.

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To add to my timepiece collection I have a small number of old fob watches in various states of repair
The small one below would have been worn by an Edwardian lady.


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Finally we come to our sitting room mantel clock. Antique in style but only dating back a few short years. I wonder if it will still be ticking in someone's home a hundred years from now?


Hoping you can make time to do lots of fun things this weekend.