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The Society Calendar and general information
Society Visit to The Netherlands
Lord Grimthorpe and Cardiff's Pierhead Clock
Summer Meeting at Brecknock Museum in Brecon on Saturday, 27th June, 2008
Dr Rees Price opened the meeting in his role as the new chairman of the Wales and Marches Horological Society.
Note that the picture above is not the museum, but a rather spectacular building opposite.
The day began with a talk by Bill Linnard on The Usk Valley Clockmakers, giving us a short introductory overview of the clockmakers there. A total of 128 makers are known, from Newport (52), Caerleon (5), Usk (5), Abergavenny (29), Crickhowel (6), Brecon (26), and the Trecastle/Defynog/Cwm Wysg i.e. the upper Usk valley (5). Newport was obviously the major centre, with nearly half of all the makers, and large numbers of clocks known, including several with tidal dials. Caleb Evans was a prominent maker in Usk, and Thomas Vaughan (a relative of the Vaughans of Pontypool) was an important early maker in Abergavenny. Thomas Banister of Brecon, working from about 1710 onwards, was one of the earliest makers of domestic clocks in Wales. Other notable Brecon makers included James Jones, one of whose clocks is exhibited at the Museum, while a turret clock by Hando of Brecon graces the entrance to the Museum.
The complicated family of makers of Cwm Usk is of special interest. William Griffith (1707-1786) was the first of this family of clockmakers. He sometimes signed his dials ‘Gwilym Griffith’ or ‘Gw. Griffith’. He is believed to be the father of Rees Willliams (1737-1827), and the grandfather of William Williams (1774-1825), and the great-grandfather of Evan Williams. All these men were clockmakers and signed clocks at various places including Trecastle (Trecastell), Defynog (Devynnock), Llywel, Brecon, and Cwm Usk (Cwm Wysg). Some of them lived and worked at a house called Ynys-fain, still standing beside the river Usk and still known locally as the clockmaker’s house (though now misnamed Ynys-faen). Most if not all of these men were baptised and buried at Llywel church, and some of their gravestones can still be seen in the churchyard there.
Society members then went on an unguided tour of the museum, which included a cleverly designed courtroom scene showing an 1830's Victorian Assize. There were galleries showing pre-history in the area, particularly the log-boat found in Llangors Lake, radio-carbon dated to between AD 760-1020 and now confidently associated with the crannog. There were several longcase clocks by local makers, some watches, and a turret clock described later.
Dr John Eisel then talked on The Church Bells of Breconshire - see reference to his book in our Research page. John talked about the earlier church bells in the county of Breconshire. The study of church bells originated in the early nineteenth century, and the first county survey, of Sussex, was published in 1864. Surveys of other counties followed, but the first one of a Welsh county (Monmouthsire) was not published until the 1930s. All of England has now been surveyed, for some counties twice as the contents of belfries are now looked at in more detail. Surveys have been published of about half of Wales, with other material has been researched and is waiting to be published. As counties were surveyed, it became evident that most pre-Reformation bells were inscribed in Latin and not dated, while post-Reformation bells were mostly inscribed in English and dated, often with a founder’s name or initials. As the date built up, it became obvious that there were mediaeval bells that had the same characteristics which were found all over the country, and the assumption was that these were cast in London, a major bell-founding centre, while others were in a limited geographical area, the presumption being that they were cast in that area.
On the technical side, he explained how bells were cast, first by the lost wax process, and then by use of a false bell made from loam, illustrating it with photographs of the Tunnoc window in York Minster, which dates from c.1340, and also drawings derived from the 1372 Exeter Cathedral accounts. The lost wax process fell out of use from the twelfth century onwards, and an example of a bell at Llanelieu, cast in the latter part of the twelfth century, was clearly modelled in loam. Even when the false bell was modelled in loam, the canons by which the bell was suspended were modelled separately in wax, and the two moulds joined before the bell was cast, later slides illustrating the problems which could occur.
In mediaeval times Breconshire was very remote, and so it is not surprising that it does not contain any mediaeval bells that could be ascribed to London. These came from somewhat closer to hand – a disused bell at Llanfilo was cast at Worcester c.1410, and there is a bell form Bristol at Llanelli which was cast c. 1440. Towards the end of the century bells were supplied to the county by Robert Hendley of Gloucester, one at Merthyr Cynog, and two for Llandefaelog Fach. These bells, although of some size, would have been cast at the respective places of origin and then transported to Breconshire. Mediaeval craftsmanship was good, although it declined in the sixteenth century, and from poor moulding work the inscription on a disused bell at Ystradgynlais, which dates from the early sixteenth century, is partly indecipherable.
From the seventeenth century onwards the introduction of change ringing, which required more bells and caused more usage, was a factor in causing mediaeval bells being recast. Even though this originated in the east of the England and did not spread to Wales until the eighteenth century, none the less the effects were felt in Breconshire. Because of the demand, and poor transport links, in the seventeenth century many bells were cast near the church for which they were intended. Such a case was at Llanddew in 1631, where Thomas Stone of Hereford cast at least two bells. Another was at Cathedin in 1641, for which Thomas Stone cast a bell on which he gave his name in full, rather than just his initials. His bells have been found all over South Wales, the latest ones being in the 1650s. Another founder who passed through was Robert Purdue II, a member of a West country family of bellfounders, who in the middle 1680s cast bells for Llanfaes, Dfynnog and Merthyr Cynog. At this time bells were being cast in Breconshire by Henry Williams, of Glasbury, mostly fairly small, and not always very well cast. Over 30 examples are know, ranging in date form 1677 to 1719, either surviving or details of which were kept when recast.
One of the earlier established Welsh foundries was that of the Penningtons, John I & II, of Monmouth, who may have come from the West country. Their bells range in date from 1621 to 1682, although the earliest of the 13 Breconshire are two bells cast for Llanelli in 1626, and the latest two bells cast by the foundry for Llanfihangel Tal-y-llyn. The Monmouth foundry closed c.1682, leaving the way clear for the great Welsh foundry of Evans of Chepstow, which started c.1686. This is well represented in Breconshire, with at least 40 examples, and dates ranging from 1700 to 1766, including four complete rings of bells. The last known bells from the foundry were cast by William Evans in 1767, so the Breconshire example of 1766 at Aberyscir is a very late one. William Evans died in 1770.
The Gloucester foundry of the Rudhall family, which cast bells from 1684 onwards, was a great competitor of the Evans foundry, and the last member of the Rudhall family died in 1835. In the intervening time the foundry sent out over 4,500 bells, at least 50 to Breconshire. The earliest were a ring of six bells cast for Talgarth in 1724 and the latest a ring of four bells cast for Llanhamlach in 1829.
This brought the story up into the nineteenth century, but time did not permit a discussion of the later founders, details of which could be found in John ’s book on the church bells of Breconshire.
John also explained that in modern times it was not just the details of the bells that were taken, but there was great interest in the bell frames themselves, of which he had made a special study in the last 25 years, not just in Wales but covering about half of England. There were a number of interesting examples in Breconshire, including the remodelled frame in Brecon Cathedral, now on display in the vistors’ centre, and another mediaeval frame at Llanfihangel Nant Bran.
After lunch we were treated to an informal chat between Rees Price and our new member Maurice Wharf, clockmaker - A Lifetime of Clocks and Watches.. Maurice became interested in clocks while serving in the RAF as an instrument maker. There were watches that the pilots wore and numerous clocks in the RAF stations. He bought himself out of the RAF after a home posting at St Athan and for a while took a 9.00 to 5.00 job while living in Rhoose. He soon gave up the office work and took up with 77 year old clockmaker Albert Jones of Penarth. It was mostly watch work, for the trade - clocks came later. Albert had several apprentices and Maurice was taught the old skills - casting his own brass plates, wheels, etc., in open sand moulds. Pellets of brass were bought in, and the cast products hammered, scraped, polished and finished by hand.
Albert died 2 years later, leaving the business to Maurice who moved it to Canton in Cardiff. The bulk of the trade was English longcases but work included all types of clocks, and of course watches. He spent seven years in Cardiff, both repairing and retail, selling jewellery, etc., but there was a lot of competition so he felt he needed to find a niche. From 1979 onwards, he started making his own clocks, both the mechanism and the case. On each new design he first made one for himself to ensure it worked reliably. This led on to commissioned work. He made all the clock parts, including wheel cutting, but sent the dials out to be engraved.
Maurice worked in Cardiff until 1975 when he moved his workshop to Dinas Powys. He lived there for 28 years before moving recently to Brecon. He still takes in repairs and has space in the new Antique Centre in Brecon. He has recently been asked to make a chapel clock to replace a quartz one! Chapel clocks are interesting in that they are usually English dials, but are back-wound as they are frequently fixed to wooden panelling on the gallery in the chapel. As the value of clocks is now realised, chapels are keeping and maintaining their clocks. He has tried to take on apprentices, but sadly has not had any success with the modern youth.
In the member's contribution section we saw a CD of the admission to the Clockmakers Company of Bill Linnard and other initiates at Michaelmas Court. This was followed by a talk by Ed Cloutman on the restoration of a longcase by James Drury, London which had a northern striking mechanism. Several London clocks he has worked on recently have had this type of mechanism, and he suspects that they were being imported from the north of England, or could northern-trained clockmakers be coming to the City for work?
There were heavy hammering marks on the back of the chapter ring and dial plate, where the mallet had not been held flat to the work - possibly a rather raw apprentice had been put to work on it? Also the central movement pillar had been broken off. Possibly it was being held in a vice to do work on the back plate and got treated roughly. Another unusual feature on this clock was the indexing of the pin wheel to the gathering pinion, and the gathering wheel to the warning pinion. This makes setting up relatively easy, as it is notoriously difficult with the northern striking mechanism. He then went on to show how computers could be used in the design of clock trains and escapements. Also by using Photoshop, a graphic arts package, he was able to bring out the detail on a badly worn painted dial, using colour filters - magenta being best for this particular dial.
Luke Millar followed by showing us the unusual construction of the clock case. He also showed us a wooden finial he restored, using silver leaf and then applying a coloured lacquer until the correct depth of colour was reached.
My thanks to John and Bill for providing synopses of their talks.and Peter Powell for his notes on Maurice Wharf, clockmaker.