The end of time

BRITAIN is running short of clockmakers and restorers. There are no more than 100 people left who make clocks from start to finish, according to the Heritage Crafts Association, which noted that the few apprentices entering the profession are not enough to make up for those retiring from it.

‘Many traditional crafts, including clockmaking, are facing a perfect storm, the result of the systematic withdrawal of practical subjects taught in schools, the lack of apprenticeship standards for niche trades (meaning that employers are unable to access apprenticeship levies in order to fund training) and the lack of financial capacity for sole traders and micro-businesses to pass on their skills as they absorb the cost of reduced productivity,’ says the association’s Daniel Carpenter. ‘All this, compounded by Covid and soaring inflation, means that these skills are under unprecedented threat, despite being more visible than ever thanks to mainstream media such as the BBC’S Repair Shop. We and partner organisations are working to raise awareness of the plight of these skills, through projects such as the Red List of Endangered Crafts, so support can come in time to save them.’ Clockmaking is currently classified as Endangered in the Red List, but, says Mr Carpenter, there is ‘a distinct likelihood’ that it will join fan-making, millwrighting and several other ancient trades in the rankings of critically endangered crafts ‘at serious risk of no longer being practised in the UK’.

Part of the gardens at Great Comp, Platt, Kent, the Bambooserie is not only an oasis of peace, but the culmination of a project that allowed the veterans who created it to gain new skills and rebuild their confidence. Conceived by the former clinical lead for West Kent Mental Health and chair of the Kent Armed Forces Network David Chesover, it features 26 different varieties of bamboo, planted against a backdrop of azaleas and rhododendrons