Where has August gone ? Time has just flown by and already the nights are drawing in. Amidst all the affairs of the world one bit of news captured the front pages, and that was the silencing of the nation's timepiece Big Ben. As far as I understand the clock will keep working except for short periods but the distinctive bells are now silent for maintenance that will take years. The whole country, nay, the whole world, is sad. So how much do we need some mechanical thing to keep time for us ? Perhaps as a child you were very happy to count the hours by the Dandelion Clock and learned this little rhyme by Mary K Robinson - The dandelion puff is a very queer clock / It doesn't say tick and it doesn't say tock / It hasn't a cuckoo, it hasn't a chime / And I really don't think it can tell me the time ! But we were more than happy to just go home when we were hungry. The first image I was aware of that depicted Big Ben was on the label of a bottle of sauce. Evidently the HP stands for Houses of Parliament, and the tower is called the Elizabeth Tower which houses Big Ben. HP sauce has been making food tasty for well over a hundred years. The bongs of Big Ben have been silenced in the past, and the BBC has kept its time by broadcasting The Pips. Six Pips are the Greenwich Meantime signal and I listen to them a lot, being an insomniac the BBC World Service is my companion in the wee small hours. However at this time of year I have to remember that the World Service broadcasts on GMT whilst we are in British Summer Time. This is the clock on Trinity Church in the middle of the market place. When the clocks were changed to BST in the spring it stopped working. This drove everyone nuts. I had no idea how often I looked up at the clock, it was just there, so you looked at it all the time as you crossed and re-crossed the market place, came in and out of shops, checked the time for catching a bus. At last it is working again and telling the right time. But this has made me think of all the clocks that are in public places. Church towers are an obvious place, but they are in many other places as well. Ripon and Thirsk both have town clock towers, railway stations, public buildings, town halls, schools, colleges. Time Keeping must be important to warrant such a cost. This picture is of Trinity Church in Richmond Market Place by William Sanderson [1854 - 1930] who was a photographer and artist and lived on the Channel. I think there is some problem with the scale, the people in the foreground are so tiny ! But it is very quaint. This is part of the collection of the Richmondshire Museum and is on the ArtUK website. This very distinctive town clock in Darlington was painted by John Binney Gibbs [1859 - 1935] and is in the collection of the Darlington Library and Art Gallery. Also on the ArtUK website. Sadly Darlington Library, a lovely building, is just about to close, I wonder what will happen to the art collection, does anyone know ? But doesn't this picture make Darlington look smart ? High Row has actually improved in recent years as the bus stops have been moved. The large clock tower is at one end of the covered market. The other landmark clock in Darlington is on the tower at the railway station at the top of Victoria Road. Looking after public clocks was an expensive and skilled job, and paying a local clock maker was a regular item in Churchwardens' Accounts for many little villages. Sometimes they name the clock maker, but more often just give the amount paid out. In East Witton churchwardens' accounts dated 24 June 1811 five shillings was spent on the Clock Maker. On 9 July 1812 the accounts have ten shillings and sixpence for a Dial. Now as this was at the time that the new church was being built these payments may have been for a new clock. Wensley Churchwardens' accounts also have payment of one pound to John Foss for looking after the clock in 1742. A handsome payment but perhaps there was a lot of work to do. This August there was a very interesting exhibition in Leyburn of clocks made by local clockmakers in Yorkshire, all researched and brought together by Dr David Severs who will give a talk on these local clockmakers to our Upper Dales Family History Group at the end of November. There were some beautiful long case and wall clocks showing great skill and imagination by local craftsmen.
Looking for more humble, but nevertheless skilled, clockmakers, there was a clockmaker in Richmond who had the name Mark Anthony Dempster. Oh how we like families with distinctive names. He called his children Mary, Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, Jessie, Augustus Caesar and Cicero. Sadly Cicero appeared in prison in Northallerton. Mark Anthony was the Richmond clock maker through the censuses until 1871, then he died in County Durham in 1874. Here is Mark Anthony Dempster in 1861 on King street in Richmond, clock and watchmaker, born in York, with a wife Ann from Acomb, Marcus Brutus a solicitor's clerk, Jessie a dress maker and Cicero still at school. So time is important, sometimes, and at other times it is just nice to let time flow by and not have to pay it so much attention.
This is from a letter dated 14th December 1705 from a father, John Stukeley, to his student son, William Stukeley, at college. Son William, Yours of the third instant I received , by which I am informed you and your chum agree very well, at which I am pleased. Pray take Mr Dodson's advice as to your wigg. As to the want of a watch, I am sure that cannot be considerable, for in regard you know the houres you are to goe to prayers, the butteryes & meale times, tis impossible for to be ignorant of the time of day, in such a town especially. And besides you will be at great charge in other matters, & I never had but one in all my life, & what with the charge of keeping it in repaires, etc made me weary of it. Soe that it is not onley sinkinge soe much money, but drawinge a continuall charge upon your selfe . I am gladder to hear your cloaths grow too little, than too bigg for you ....... Your ever loveing Father, Jo: Stukeley Well did the son ever get a watch ? Perhaps when he graduated. Watches and clocks have always been given at certain points in life to commemorate and celebrate. Meanwhile, I have been taking the advice of this bit of the Bible - Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 7 : A time to tear and a time to sew. Oh how I love it when there is a verse to justify all the time I spend making patchwork quilts, which requires a lot of cutting up, not tearing, then sewing back together again !
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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