Clockmakers of Central England

Author: Joseph McKenna

368 pages, 300 illustrations

This book is a detailed study of clockmaking and watchmaking, and the craftsmen and women who worked in the trade in Central England: Birmingham, Coventry, and the three surrounding counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire. This work also looks at clockmaking and watchmaking in the industrial towns and villages of the Black Country, while a major centre of clock-case manufacture in Staffordshire is discussed for the first time.

Birmingham and Coventry both made important contributions to the history of horology. Birmingham, as well as being a thriving centre of both clockmaking and watchmaking in its own right, was also a major source of parts and materials for clocks and watches. A chapter looks at these subsidiary trades, and reveals previously undocumented material relating to the manufacture of components such as bells, cases, springs and hands for clocks, as well as cases, chains, keys, glasses and springs for watches. The painted clock dial was first developed in Birmingham, and much new information is presented on both the dial manufacturers and also those who actually painted the dials.

The chapter on Coventry traces the early history of clockmaking in the city back to the fifteenth century. It also discusses the growth of the very important watch trade, its decline and its successful evolvement into the bicycle, motor and light engineereing industries.

The history of clocks made for the churches, abbeys and cathedrals in the three counties is also discussed, with numerous quotations from early documents, as well as the rural clockmakers who made timekeepers for the local inhabitants. The major part of this book is a list of watchmakers and clockmakers from the earliest records to the start of the twentieth century, with additional biographical information. There is a list of clockmakers and watchmakers by town, and an appendix of trademarks used on Birmingham and Coventry watches and clocks. Along with almost three hundred illustrations. this information will enable collectors to better appreciate, and more accurately date their clocks and watches.