Hard times for antique clocks without experts to repair them
TIME is ticking for antique clocks because of a dire shortage of experts who can repair them.
Clockmaking is now on a Red List of Endangered Crafts, drawn up by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), which warns that more specialists are retiring than entering the profession, with young people playing with computers rather than clocks that once inspired them into the trade.
David Poole, a former master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, which received its Royal Charter in 1631, said: “The shortage of clockmakers is a problem. Whereas there used to be clockmakers on the high street, a clock repair shop is a rare sight today.
“Waiting lists will just grow and people will find it exceedingly difficult to identify anyone to repair their clock.”
The HCA said there are only about 250 makers and repairers left in Britain.
While specialists are nearing retirement, they cannot afford to take on apprentices, as they did in the past, and the few training courses that have survived will not fill the gap, it is feared.
Howard Walwyn, a leading dealer in Kensington, west London, described the shortage as “a major problem”.
“We are very short of really good people. Long delays in getting work done sympathetically to the right methods of horology is a problem.”
Mr Walwyn warned that if expertise for repairing such jewels was lost, clocks become “inanimate objects rather than living things”.
Mark Sampson, a clockmaker based in Cirencester, Glos, said: “There are precious few people coming into the business. Most people who are in it are edging towards retirement, as am I. If people aren’t skilled, all those lovely things won’t be looked after properly.”