Clock restorer and repairer John Carpenter at his workshop in East Grinstead.
Beautiful Custom-Made Plantation Shutters • No pushy salesmen • Competitive price from the outset
Tel: 01444 440056 www.thewindowshuttercompany.co.uk
R.D. JENKINS & SON LTD. QUALIFIED BUILDERS WE HAVE BEEN TRADING FOR 36 YEARS
THE BUSINESS COVERS MANY ASPECTS OF THE BUILDING TRADE, SOME OF WHICH ARE LISTED BELOW:
CHIMNEYS: Repointing • Leadwork • Leaks • Pots & Cowls U.P.V.C. PLASTIC: Fascias • Soffits • Cladding GUTTERING: Cleaning • Repairing • Renewing MOSS REMOVAL: Water Pressure Cleaning BRICKWORK: Walls • Pointing • Patios • Driveways ROOF REPAIRS: Tiles • Slates • Ridge & Hip Tiles FELT ROOFS: Garages • Porches • Dormers FOR A FREE ESTIMATE PLEASE CONTACT US ON
(Hassocks): 01273 843040 / 842808
or 07715 000883 / 07514 011782 Email: info@rdjenkinsandson.com Website: www.rdjenkinsandson.com
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SuSSex Living January 2014
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Although clockmaking has a long history in England, prior to 1600, it was undertaken almost exclusively by continental tradesmen. Many tower or church clocks were made in situ by these men, while smaller items such as table clocks would have been imported into Britain. Religious persecutions during the 16th century resulted in an influx of refugees who included clockmakers and, from the early 17th century, Englishmen began learning the craft from these men. There is a record of a Peter Sommelier in Rye as early as 1571, and the great clock at Rye Church was made by Lewis Billiard, a protestant from Gascony in 1552. The village of Bolney was home to clockmaker Cornelious Muzzell, a Huguenot refugee and his son who carried on his father’s craft. The most important English clockmaker was Thomas Tompion, prolific in the early 1700s and clockmaker to the Crown. He is believed to have owned a factory in Aldgate, London, where ‘rough’ movements were made to be finished to individual customers’ requirements. Mechanical clocks were first used in monasteries to regulate the prayers of monks; the clock’s purpose was to strike a bell every hour to serve this purpose. It was the chiming bell that gave clocks their name; the Latin clocca (bell) demonstrates how important the bell was to mark the time of day. The rural church clock would have been heard across the landscape, tolling the hours while farm workers toiled in fields around the village. The church clock was symbolic of village cohesion; it called the hours and acted as regulator for the working day. As industry began to take over from agriculture and village trades, clocks needed to be ever more accurate as their role was primarily to keep time for the worker. Regulator clocks were precision-made to provide as accurate a measurement as possible to which other clocks www.sussexliving.com