Watch is winding its way home

A pocket watch which belonged to an Overtown man almost a century ago is winding its way back to his relatives.

Earlier this year we tried to turn back time and unite the antique pocket watch with a family member of its original owner John N Nelson.

Rod Langley, 73, bought the gold-plated American Standard type pocket-watch for £5 from a shop in the market town of Glossop, near Manchester over 50 years ago.

The watch enthusiast from Southport, West Lancashire discovered it had an inscription inside; “John N Nelson, Durham Bank, Overtown, Wishaw”.

Although it was dated “Annos 1922”, by Rod’s reckoning the watch was manufactured around 1900.

He often wondered who Mr Nelson was and how it had ended up south of the border.

With the watch more than a century old and in need of a new bezel and glass, Rod thought it might be a good time to try and trace relatives of its inscribed owner.

The Wishaw Press made an appeal back in January for anyone with information on John N Nelson to get in touch with us.

James Naismith remembered two sisters Mirren and Jenny Nelson living there in the 1960s until they were victims of a break-in.

“The people who broke in gave them an awful doing,” he recalled.

The women, who also had a brother who stayed in Pather Buildings, were hospitalised and on their release were rehoused in Waterloo.

“After they left the house vandals got in and set fire to it”, James added. “The Burgh put on a compulsory order for demolition and it was knocked down.”

A few years ago James, who still lives in a house neighbouring the demolished house, received a visitor – a man asking for information on the Nelsons.

We can reveal that man was Billy Nelson, originally of Overtown, who had been trying to trace the family tree.

Billy, 74, has lived in Aberdeen since 1977. His aunt, Mary Byrne, 82, is the great niece of the watch’s owner John N Nelson.

Billy, who also lived in Wishaw, was told of our story about the watch.

He said: “Before I got in contact with you my wife’s cousin from Carluke phoned and told me there was a guy in the Wishaw Press looking for relations of the Nelsons.

“The two women who lived at Durham Bank were my grandfather’s aunts.

“My Auntie Mary is the only one that’s left, her siblings were my father Thomas Nelson, Annie Nelson and Margaret Nelson. They are all deceased. “They were great nieces and nephew.” Mary’s father William Nelson was the village lamp lighter in Overtown and the watch belonged to his uncle John.

Rod had been musing over whether to get back in touch with the Wishaw Press when we contacted him with the news.

He was delighted to hear that we had found someone to take possession the watch.

He said: “When I heard I thought ‘that is fantastic’.

“You’ve done an excellent job with this, and it’s unearthed a really interesting story.

“It was the late 60s when I bought this in Glossop. That was a long time ago.

“How that watch got from Overtown to there is still a mystery”.