My Story
My interest in clocks came from visiting my grandparents, they lived in a wonderful four storey house called Semaphore House, which I found magical as a kid, it’s on the top of a hill, called Telegraph Hill, and it was built during the period of Admiral Nelson, for long distance military communication.
On each floor there were between four to six mechanical clocks, when I was about seven years old, I was allowed to wind most of them up every time I visited, but I had to wait a fair few years to even be able to touch the one that captivated me most of all, a triple Fusee skeleton table clock, which was in a lounge we all referred to as the Museum, unbeknown to my grandparents, and because it was so rarely used, but I guess it was safer there.
Clocks in every room, next door, above and below could be heard chiming and striking randomly, which I found comforting, along with all the ticking.
My intrigue for how they, and anything else mechanical worked sparked when I was about ten years old, and I was often taking things apart to learn, much to the dismay of my parents, but that grew to be able to fix many things, and that always felt satisfying, and still does.
Needless to say, I became an engineer, a toolmaker to be precise, pardon the pun!
A little over 25 years ago I moved up from the south to Barrow upon Humber, the home of the most famous clockmaker ever, John Harrison, my daughter’s school was named after him, and there’s a beautiful bronze statue of him in the village, and these things rekindled my childhood interest of clocks, along with reading Longitude, the story of a genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. I’ve never looked back since transferring my engineering expertise onto horology, I guess it was always my vocation!