Charing Clocks, Clockmakers and Clockkeepers
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND
CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
In 1997 the first authoritative book on Kent clocks was published from
which it is immediately apparent that the parish of Charing has a rich
horological heritage.1 Its original seventeenth-century clock remains in
the Church and three eighteenth-, and two nineteenth-century clockmakers
are listed. Adjusted for size, Charing has a density of clockmakers on a
par with Canterbury and Maidstone. Yet what is written in Kent Clocks on
Charing totals less than a page. An extensive search of earlier literature2
again finds less than a printed page on Charing's horology. The purpose
of this paper is to explore Charing's horological past in greater detail and
covers the period before the arrival of clockmaking in the village in the
1720s.3
The scratch dial
The earliest surviving evidence of time measurement in Charing is a
scratch dial on the south-east corner of the chancel of the church (Fig.
1). It was recorded by Pat and Gerald Winzar in 1982. A scratch dial,
so named because it is incised in stone, is a primitive form of sundial.
Numerous examples have been noted.4 Typically they are the size of a
hand, placed at about eye level on a south-facing wall. We do not know
what a complete original scratch dial would have looked like. No style
or gnomen survives in situ - we are left only with the drilled hole in
the stone or the gap between stones, where it would have been wedged.
Scratch dials may have been complemented by additional painted
markings. The exterior of medieval churches were often limewashed,
and the incised lines may originally have been cut to ease 'reinstatement'
after limewashing. Moreover, the appearance of scratch dials today bears
the distorting effects of centuries of weathering, rebuilding and possible
embellishment by a later hand.
To interpret scratch dials we must completely abandon the modern
method of keeping time. The medieval approach divided the period
between sunrise and sunset into twelve hours. Obviously, an hour would
183
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
Stone
Stone
Stone
Scale 1:3.75
Fig. 1 Charing Scratch Dial. Shown as a drawing because it is too faint by
weathering to be photographed clearly.
be shortest in midwinter. This system, as much in medieval life, had its
roots in the Church. The Church laid particular stress on the third, sixth
and ninth hours of the day (terce, sext and none) at which times particular
devotional activities (offices) were laid down. A southerly facing wall
in which a stick or pointer facing due south was inserted, would cast a
shadow that moved through a semi-circle. Subdivisions within that semicircle
divide the day into its constituent parts. The schematic scratch dial
in Fig. 2 shows the third, sixth and ninth hours. There is considerable
variation in exactly what is marked, how it is marked, and with what
emphasis.5 Thus scratch dials do not measure 'the' time; instead they
divide the period of daylight into various proportions. In an age without
artificial illumination and with most economic activity geared to farming,
it worked.
Returning to Charing's scratch dial, the vertical downward line
represents the sixth hour (i.e. noon), whilst the line on the left is the third
hour or terce line. 6 The terce line had special ecclesiastical importance
in being the accepted time for celebrating mass, and the end of the line
184
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
Sunrise
(Start of 1 st hour)
61h hour
(Sext)
NOON
Fig. 2 A Schematic Scratch Dial.
Sunset
appears to be emphasised. One can only speculate what the other two
intermediary lines represent - probably some other service or function
the priest would perform. There is no afternoon to the scratch dial, it
would have fallen within the shadow cast by the transept. Perhaps there
was another scratch dial, since lost, elsewhere.7
Simple scratch dials predate the introduction of clocks. As clocks became
more widespread, the failure of simple scratch dials and the medieval time
system to measure true astronomical time - a fact well known to medieval
astronomers - would have become increasing apparent. This undoubtedly
led to an improvement in sundial design, especially the angled ( for latitude)
gnomen. The scratch dial was supplanted by a scientifically accurate
sundial.8 As we shall see shortly, Charing definitely had a sundial in the
early seventeenth century, possibly earlier. So Charing's scratch dial can be
dated to the sixteenth century or earlier. The chancel walls have been dated
to the late twelfth century. Most probably it is one of the later examples of
numerous scratch dials all long since lost.9
The first sundial
The earliest documentary evidence of time measurement in Charing
appears in the churchwarden's accounts for 1617/8:
Imprimis layd oute for tymber bordes and nayles for the
Dya11 in the Churchyard
item to the Carpenter and his man for worke
item for the payntinge of itt
ix8 ijd
X8 viijd
jjS
This is obviously a completely new sundial, either the first or a
replacement. The fact that the accounts make no mention of a sundial
185
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
between 1590 and 1617 suggests it was the first one.10 The 1617/8
entry states that the sundial was 'in the churchyard.' This is not of
itself necessarily inconsistent with the current position of the modem
sundial on the wall above the porch of the Church. However, subsequent
references in the churchwarden's accounts to 'ye Diall post' suggest the
sundial was probably free standing during the seventeenth century.
Expenditure on the sundial needs to be distinguished from that on the
dial of the church clock, procured in 1626/7 (see below). It is important
to note that the sundial would have been retained after the procurement of
the clock to set and regulate it. There are two unambiguous entries:
[1622/3, pre-clock] for mending ye dialle iiijd
[1629/30] paid John Coalle for the whoope and mending the sun Dial viijd
Other entries in the accounts show John Coalle was a metal worker and
his retaining hoop, perhaps even with hour markings, for the wooden dial
was probably an improvement as much as a repair. It would appear that
the sundial underwent a complete renovation in 1640/1 :
Item paid to Edward Cooper for the newe painting of the dyall £1 9s. Od.
Item paid to Hunt for halfe a dayes work in mending of the dyall board 10d.
This is the last such redecoration recorded. After the clock had an
external dial fitted on the tower the sundial was demoted in terms of
decorative priority. Apart from one possible and intriguing reference (see
below), only the odd minor repair to the sundial is recorded. Beyond
the seventeenth century the churchwarden's accounts are silent until the
twentieth century.
Charing Church Clock
The churchwarden's accounts have survived for 1590-1955, and apart
from 1725-60, only the odd year is missing. They are incredibly detailed
(especially so for the seventeenth century) and contain well over 500
entries of horological interest. Charing's documentary record must be
amongst the most complete for any parish church clock. Furthermore the
accounts not only capture the main events as evidenced by expenditure,
but also identify and name all of the individuals, high and low, associated
with the clock.
The clock was acquired in 1626/7. It was intended to pay for it by
public subscription (a procedure often used for this purpose), but the
amount donated fell short and £3 15s. was charged to the churchwarden's
accounts. This shortfall may explain why installation and completion of
all works associated with the clock were not completed for almost ten
years (see Appendix, Table 1). It must also be borne in mind that during
186
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCK.MAKERS AND CLOCK.KEEPERS (PART I)
the same period other major expenditures, for example on the Church
roof, bells and windows, were being undertaken. A new clock would
have cost in the region of £9, 11 implying that some £5 was raised by the
subscribers, whose names are not recorded.
For its first three years the clock was in a temporary position, probably
on the floor, and (as evidenced by improvement in 1629/30) may have
started life with a low operating specification. For example the dial
could have been small, the clock may not have fully struck the hours
(and certainly was not linked to the main church bells), and it may have
required winding twice a day. In 1629/30 the clock was re-sited - in
particular it was raised off the ground and wall-mounted above head
height. The strongest evidence for this is in the churchwarden's 1635/6
entry for final decorative encasement and plastering which refers to
' ... pewes in ye halfe pace', i.e. under the clock. Additional pulleys,
including double pulleys, 12 and additional heavier weights (and related
safety sand box) all suggest that the clock was now fully striking, linked
to the main church bell and required winding only once a day. Moreover,
a bigger and more decorative internal dial was fitted, visible only from
inside the church.
So the picture we have by the mid 1630s is of a decorative dial mounted
on ( or forming part of) the wood case surrounding the clock mechanism.
The case itself fitted neatly into the plastering of the church wall above
head height and had pews beneath it. Ropes emerged from the top of the
case and via a system of pulleys connected to the weights which were
separately encased - no doubt against the wall. Similarly a wire would
connect the clock to a bell hammer in the tower. We do not know exactly
where within the church the clock was but we do know that it was moved
into the tower in 1655/6 and an external dial fitted. The new dial was
decorated by a professional painter in Ashford:
Item to the painter for painting and guilding of the Dyall £1 10s.
Item to the said painter for two dayes Journeys from Ashford 4s.
That it was external follows from two pieces of evidence. Firstly the
dial was associated with an unusual degree of structural work, surely
excessive for redecoration of the internal dial:
Item for plateing the 4 Corners of the dyall
Item to John Willard for Iron worke to sett up the dyall
Item for taking down and setting up dyall
Secondly the new dial coincided with:
Item for an houre glasse for the Church
Item to William Amys for a frame to sett the houre glasse in
187
ls. Od.
ls. 6d.
4s. Od.
Os. 8d.
ls. 8d.
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
implying there was no longer a dial in the Church. Subsequent entries
referring to clock maintenance are consistent with the clock being in the
tower.
The clock purchased in 1626/7 was presumably typical of its day. It
would have had a verge escapement with foliot control. Such clocks
could be 'out' by ¼-½ hour per day depending on temperature and the
distribution of dirt and oil on the clock's mechanism. The clock would
require frequent resetting to sundial time - a task undertaken by the
daily winder. The sundial, based on the rotation of the earth, was highly
accurate: the clock much less so, but it worked during cloudy days. The
clock gave 24 hour coverage, but the sundial ensured accuracy. Whilst
the performance of early clocks would be regarded as unsatisfactory by
modem standards, there was a different conception of accurate time four
centuries ago. Clocks only had the one (hour) hand (all references in the
seventeenth and eighteenth century churchwarden's accounts are to 'the
hand'): a quarter of an hour was the smallest unit of time! 13
For its first thirty years all the evidence points to the clock functioning
satisfactorily and economically. The blacksmith would undertake minor
repairs and periodically clean the mechanism. Likewise there would be
periodic repair and replacement of ropes, wire and pulleys. From the
late 1650s the record tells a different story. The cost of maintaining
the clock's mechanism doubled (Appendix, Table 2) requiring more
frequent and costly repairs, increasingly beyond the competence of the
blacksmith. In 1656/7 and 1666/7 it was sent to clockmakers in Ashford
for expensive repairs.
Coincident with these misfortunes, clock technology was revolutionised
by two highly significant developments in the space of little more than a
decade. Firstly, by 1658 the use of the pendulum was perfected: secondly,
around 1670 the anchor escapement was developed and perfected.14 The
result was that clocks became much more reliable (i.e. less prone to
breakdown) and accurate - to within the odd minute per month.
The increasing cost, unreliability and obsolesence of Charing Church
clock culminated in it being dispatched yet again to Ashford in 1682/3.
Paid John Greenhill for making the Church Clocke into a
Pendilam and other worke as by his Acquittance appears £5 0s.
Expended upon Mr Greenhill when he fetched the Clocke
from Charing and when he brought the same home again 2s. 6d.
The clock had been converted from its original foliot with verge
escapement to an anchor escapement with pendulum control. As a
consequence its running costs over the following 40 years were halved
(see Table 2). Enhanced accuracy and reliability required a more
sophisticated approach to clock setting and synchronisation with sundial
time. Allowance had to be made for the difference between actual and
188
CHAR ING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND CLOCK.KEEPERS (PART I)
PLATE I
Original Charing Church Clock 1626/7 and 1682/3
mean solar time. 15 Hitherto clocks were not sufficiently reliable or
accurate for this seasonal variation to be noticed.
After the 1682/3 conversion and rebuild we are left very much with the
clock as it appears today, on display in Charing Church (Plate [). The clock
was decommissioned in 1910 and is recorded as being in the Church Tower
for several years. 16 In 1959/60 it was removed and stored: 17 however, it was
rediscovered in 1970. Its restoration to working order was undertaken by
K. Stocker who records 'the parts were cleaned and assembled and the only
missing items were the iron wedges which hold the frame together' .18
The clock is (for obvious reasons) categorised as a four post frame or
birdcage type. Its corner posts are decorated with outward pointing ball
finials. It retains its original end to end trains. From the 1670s clocks
were built with side by side trains and older clocks were often retrained
to such when major works were carried out.
So far we have specifically mentioned William Barrett (who made the
clock) and John Greenhill (who converted it), both of Ashford. They
were members of two of Kent's leading seventeenth-century clockmaking
families, with further clockmaking branches of the family in
Maidstone (Greenhill) and Canterbury (Barrett and Greenhill). The
Greenhills in particular, through their apprentices and marriages, were
enonnously influential in Kent's expanding late seventeenth-century
clock industry. 19 In fact two generations of each of the Ashford branches
189
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
of these two families worked on Charing church clock -William Senior
and William Junior Barrett, and Richard and John Greenhill (Appendix,
Table 3). After Richard Greenhill moved from Maidstone to establish
the Ashford Greenhills, the two families, Barretts and Greenhills, work
almost interchangeably on the clock- indeed in 1696/7 they both appear
to be involved in the same repair. It is likely they closely cooperated: in a
small town like Ashford it is difficult to envisage otherwise.20
A clock regulating sundial?
In 1694/5 there is a simple entry in the churchwarden's accounts: 'paid Mr
Greenhill for a Dyall for the Church 5s. 0d. '. Could this be a sundial? Other
possibilities appear less credible. Its cost is too low to be a replacement
dial for the church tower and there is no mention of taking down/putting
up work that would have been necessary. The other alternative is a new
setting dial for the clock; but the clock was completely rebuilt only twelve
years before and it is most unlikely the small metal setting dial would fail.
Moreover why describe such a dial as 'for the church'?
Clockmakers did make sundials: indeed William Barrett himself is
recorded in churchwarden's accounts as having made sundials for Wye
(1638) and Bethersden (1643). The Wye sundial is described as brass
and both cost Ss., the same as the Greenhill dial. Being skilled metal
workers clockmakers could make a precision dial that was accurate.
A metal sundial would also help explain the subsequent absence of
maintenance expenditure in the churchwarden's accounts. It is possible
that the clock after its conversion, and enhanced accuracy and reliability,
was increasingly finding the old sundial wanting. The dial may not have
been precisely made in the first place; it may have become damaged or
distorted with age. It is also possible that the Greenhill dial had actual
to mean solar time adjustments engraved on it for easy reference.
As discussed above, we cannot be sure where the dial was sited. It is
possible this was a vertical wall mounted dial; alternatively the move to
the current siting may have occurred considerably later.
Charing Church clock- early eighteenth-century developments
The first clockmaker to work on Charing clock in the eighteenth century
(for periodic cleaning) was John Sills ofWychling- a hitherto unrecorded
clockmaker. He is mentioned on numerous occasions in the Lenham
churchwarden's accounts between 1696-1732.21 The next clockmaker
to become involved, in 1719-20, was John Wimble, another notable
Ashford clockmaker.22 As he was a busy and successful clockmaker he
would have subcontracted the daily winding, to whom is not recorded.
He marks a watershed in how the upkeep of the clock was organised.
Before him the churchwardens discharged their responsibility through
190
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCK.MAKERS AND CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
separate arrangements with three different parties. Firstly, daily winding
and setting, typically with the Clerk or Sexton (see Appendix, Table 4).
Secondly, minor repairs with the blacksmith and other local tradesmen.
Thirdly intermittent specialist repairs with professional clockmakers. As
the number of clockmakers increased rapidly during the early eighteenth
century it became practicable for the Churchwardens to subcontract their
overall responsibility entirely to a clockmaker. The change seems to have
been associated with a reduction in the clock's total operating costs (see
Table 2), with a halving in the daily winding fee being partially offset by an
increase in the repair costs of the clock mechanism. After 1724 Charing had
its own resident clockmakers (to be described in a subsequent article).
We briefly consider some of the various individuals who have been
associated with the clock. We have seen that in the seventeenth century,
the blacksmith undertook much of the repair work on the clock. For much
of the time this was the Willard family: Robert (1630-45) and John (1646-
68). Robert's inventory survives and totals £117 15s. Od.23 The Willards
were thus prosperous tradesmen and their inventory is well endowed with
furniture and textiles.
Brent Deering, in 1629/30 (see Table 1 ), and Gabriel Peirce in 1679/80
and 1680/1 (providing timber for the clockhouse in the tower) are both
former occupants of Peirce House in the High Street of Charing. Both
their inventories survive, and Robert Willard was one of Brent Deering's
assessors.24 Mrs Lane also provided timber, around 1680; her will leaves
her land in Lenham to ' ... my loveing friend Gabriell Peirs ... ' in addition
to other bequests to her children.25
Those who undertook daily attendance (see Table 4) for winding,
setting and oiling usually continued until they died, often old, poor and
ill. For example, the churchwarden's accounts record:
[l 636/7]
[1667/8]
[1686/7]
Item paid to the widdow Clarke, due unto her husband
deceased for looking to ye clock
Item lent to Arthur Large by the consent of the Parish
Paid Widow White for looking to ye Clocke
Archbishops palace
yS
5s.26
1 Os.27
The surviving buildings visible today, within a walled enclosure of
some four acres date from two periods - the late thirteenth century/early
fourteenth century and c.1500. Archbishops are recorded visiting two or
three times a year with stays often extending to beyond a week. Edward I
(1297 and 1299) and Edward II (1326) visited. Henry VII and Henry VIII
each visited seven times. Against such a background the question poses
itself as to whether the Archbishop's Palace possessed a clock.
The late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries saw the installation
191
CHRIS H.K. WILLIAMS
of clocks in cathedrals, major abbeys and royal residences. By the mid
sixteenth century the acquisition of clocks had extended to the richest
parishes. Within Kent, Canterbury Cathedral acquired its first clock in
1292. Queenborough Castle, also a royal residence, had a clock by 1373.
Dover Castle had a clock by 1404. By the time Cranmer was obliged by
Henry VIII to part with Charing in 1545, only parishes such as Hythe,
Canterbury (St Andrew the Apostle), Wye, Lydd and Dover had clocks. 28
However, it is most unlikely that Charing Palace possessed a clock.
Given only intermittent residence the obvious difficulties of security
(for a very expensive piece of equipment) and attending the clock would
arise. It is much more likely that travelling archbishops and royalty relied
on small portable clocks and watches. A sundial in the palace to set and
regulate such clocks would be convenient; the ceramic wall mounted
sundial of St Augustine's Canterbury is a simple but effective example.29
No physical evidence of a sundial at Charing Palace has ever been
recorded.30 No documentary evidence suggestive of a clock or sundial
has been found in the archbishop's archives relating to Charing.31
Domestic Clock Ownership
The ownership of clocks in Charing is visible in surviving inventories
of which there are 156 for the period 1600-1750 (Fig. 3). The writer's
60
so
%
40
30
20
JO
0
Years
1600 1625 16S0 167S 1700 172S 1750
Fig. 3 Charing Inventories Listing a Clock 1600-1750 (based on the writer's
statistical analysis).
192
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND CLOCK.KEEPERS (PART I)
estimates of numbers of households in the period based on the cess and
Hearth Tax returns suggests that in 1680 there were around 25 clocks and
that 15-20 per cent of all households owned a clock. By the 1730s some
55-60 households (40 per cent) possessed a clock.
The earliest recorded Charing clock, predating the Church clock, is
in Finch Dering's inventory of 1625. He lived in Peirce House and his
inventory includes, in the 'great parlour, Item an olde brocken cloke att
l s.'. 32 Presumably this clock dates to the 161 0s, when clock ownership
began to spread beyond royalty and the aristocracy into the gentry and
then among the wealthier segment of society. The 161 0s coincide with
the birth of the English lantern clock of which Finch Dering undoubtedly
possessed one of the earliest examples.33 In the pre-pendulum age lantern
clocks had verge escapements with balance wheel regulation. They were
weight driven, wall mounted and needed winding every 12-15 hours.
They had a single hour hand, usually struck the hours and sometimes
were made with an alarm mechanism (Plate 11).34
Who made Finch Dering's lantern clock? There are only three known
Kent candidates; John Greenhill, smith, of Maidstone (became master in
1607); William Barrett, locksmith, of Ashford (married 1614), who made
Charing Church clock; and Edward Barrett, locksmith, of Canterbury
(master 1616).35 Perhaps, given the absence of physical survivals, a
collective joint attribution based on inventories is the only way of appreciating
the output of the early pioneering Kentish clockmakers. Another
early lantern clock is mentioned in Joseph Hart's 1644 inventory.36 There
might have been up to four or five pre-1650 lantern clocks in Charing
made by the Barretts and/or Greenhills.
After 1650 demand grew rapidly spurred by the development of the
pendulum and anchor escapement. Although the lantern clock continued
to be made until the mid eighteenth century, it was progressively replaced
by alternative wall clocks and long-cased clocks.
Mentions of clocks in inventories tend to be very nondescript, almost
universally simply referring to a clock. A couple of rare exceptions are
[1673] ' ... one clock and case'; [1724] ' ... one clock and clockcase'.
One final point of interest is the location of clocks. In almost half of
inventories listing a clock it was in the hall, with a further third recording
the clock in the kitchen.
Watch ownership
Inventories also reveal the early ownership of watches. Sampson Peirce's
1693 inventory includes: 'Item one Silver Watch and Four paire of Silver
buttons £1 l 0s.';37 and Anne Peirce's 1707 inventory includes: 'Item for
one old Watch 12s. 0d.38
Sampson lived in Peirce House.39 Anne's watch may have been her late
193
CHRIS H.K. WlLLIAMS
PLATE II
A London-made lantern clock of c.1610, there being no known Kentish
survivals from this very early period
(© Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum)
194
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCK.MAKERS AND CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
husband's, Joseph (Sampson's uncle). The Peirce's were one ofCharing's
wealthiest families.40 Sampson's watch most likely dates to the 1680s
(he lived 1656/7-1692), while Anne's, if it were Joseph's, could date to
the 1660s or 1670s (Joseph lived from 1640-1680). The earliest known
surviving Kentish watch, made by Thomas Barrett of Canterbury, dates
to about 1670 (Plate Ill).
No further watches are to be found in surviving Charing inventories.
Although it is reasonable to expect watches, small personal and portable
items of value - practical, sentimental and :financial, to have often been
gifted before death, otherwise acquired before inventory appraisal,
or included with jewellery in inventories, their absence is surprising.
By the mid eighteenth century there was a :flourishing watch trade in
Kent evidenced less by surviving watches as by numerous 'lost watch'
newspaper advertisements. For example, the Kentish Post for 4-7 March
1746/7 contained:
Lost between Molash and Charing Heath on Tuesday Night last, a Silver
Watch, Crathome, Maidstone, on it, with a Steel Chain, and two Seals,
one Brass and the other Steel: Whoever brings it to the Swan at Charing,
or to the Printing Office at Canterbury, shall receive half a Guinea Reward
with Thanks.
In the absence of inventory data we can only speculate as to the likely
level of watch ownership. The only reasonable assumption available to
us is to postulate a similar growth in ownership of watches as was found
for clocks. On this basis the percentage of Charing households processing
a watch might have been of the order of 10 per cent in 1725, 20 in 1750
and 40 in 1780. It is interesting to note this trend is broadly in line with
a quadrupling in the number of lost watch newspaper advertisements
between the 1730s and 1780s.41
[Editorial note: Part II will appear in a subsequent issue of
Archaeologia Cantiana.]
195
\Q
°'
Watch by Thomas Barrett of Canterbury c.1670 (Courtesy Canterbury Museum)
PLATE Ill
(")
:i:
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in
:I: 1"
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CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
ENDNOTES
1 M. Pearson, Kent Clocks and Clockmakers, 1997. It is based on over 20 years of
research and dealing in Kent clocks.
2 L.R.A. Grove, 'The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul'; K. Stocker, 'The First Clock
in Charing Church' (both in About Charing, Charing and District Local History Society,
1984); and E.J. Tyler 'The Flint Family, Horologists', Cantium, 1973.
3 These later developments will be covered in a subsequent issue of Archaeologia
Cantiana.
4 T.W. Cole, Origin and Use of Church Scratch-Dials, 1935, lists over 1300 in England
including some 50 in Kent (a number since doubled by the researches of the British Sundial
Society).
5 D.E Home, Scratch-Dials: their Description and History, 1929, has developed what is
probably the most exhaustive categorisation.
6 It is 45° to the 6th hour (noon) line.
7 Church guides of the 1950s record a scratch dial on the south wall of the tower and an
oral tradition continues to this day. In fact there is no surviving trace of any scratch dial on
the tower. What can be seen is an Ordnance Survey benchmark.
8 Indeed Cole (see note 4) records some scratch dials with markings consistent with a
bent style or pointer. Examples he considers as a late transitional type before their ultimate
demise.
9 Some churches have been found with up to ten scratch dials.
10 Against that, the church roof burned down in 1590 (with the loss of the accounts before
that date) and the accounts thereafter were preoccupied with reconstruction of the fabric of
the Church. Moreover half of the 1590s accounts are missing. It may well be that sundial
maintenance was deferred, was subsumed in all the other works or took place in the missing
years.
11 William Barrett is recorded in the Wye churchwarden's accounts as providing a clock
for £9 in 1638.
12 C.F.C. Beeson, English Church Clocks 1280-1850, 1977, refers to pulley blocks
(involving double pulleys) to get a longer running period between winding for Great Milton
(Oxon.) Church clock which is also wall mounted.
13 For a more extended discussion of early clock technology and the then prevailing
concept of time, see B. Loomes, Country Clocks and their London Origins, 1976; idem,
Brass Dial Clocks, 1998; also T. Robinson, The Longcase Clock, 1995.
14 For a full discussion of these momentous developments, see Country Clocks and their
London Origins and English Church Clocks.
15 The length of the solar day varies throughout the year because of the earth's elliptical
orbit and the varying inclination of the earth's axis relative to the sun. A sundial measures
actual solar time. A clock with its constant length days measures average or mean solar
time. Consequently a sundial and a clock can diverge by up to a maximum of about I 5
minutes. Thus when setting a clock from the sundial, sundial time is adjusted by varying
amounts through the year by reference to an Equation of Time Table, widely published in
the 1690s.
16 D.R. Fotheringham, Guide to Charing; with a description of the Archiepiscopal
Palace, 1915.
17 The October 1959 Minutes of Charing Parochial Church Council record the old clock
in the clockroom was thought to be a showpiece and should be brought down. The January
1960 minutes confirm the clock was down from the tower and (presumably) put in the
Palace Gatehouse Store where subsequently rediscovered.
197
18 Stocker, 'The First Clock'.
19 See Kent Clocks for a full description of the families and their work.
20 The early concentration of clockmaking talent (which would include Thomas Deale
and Arthur Hurt) in seventeenth-century Ashford was truly extraordinary and out of all
proportion to the town's importance. Some of Kent's oldest and best domestic clocks
were made by Ashford clockmakers (see Kent Clocks). The relationships between the
early Ashford clockmakers and the reason for their concentration there warrants further
research.
21 A lengthy 1703 contract between John Sills and the Lenham churchwardens concerning
Lenham clock, bells and chimes survives: CKS: P224/6/1.
22 Kent Clocks, pp. 247-9.
23 CKS: PRC 27/12/75.
24 CKS: PRC 27/12/12 (Deering) and CKS: PRC 27/21/78 (Peirce). See also P. Winzar,
'Peirce House, Charing: the House and its Owners', Archaeologia Cantiana, cxr, 1993, 131-
200.
25 CKS: PRC 32/54/647.
26 I.e. just before he died he was given a loan in lieu of payment, as presumably none was
due because of ill health.
27 I.e. Henry White's arrears of payment after his death. His inventory totalled just £2 9s.
Od. His widow was subsequently supported by the parish.
28 Kent Clocks, pp. 12-15.
29 D. Sherlock, 'A Sun-dial tile from St Augustine's Abbey', Archaeologia Cantiana,
xcvm, 1982, 19-26.
30 A TV programme in July 2004 mentioned the discovery during filming of a possible
mass (i.e. scratch) dial. Investigation shows it cannot possibly have been a scratch dial - the
sun could not have shone on it!
31 Pers. comm. Sarah Pearson, who has extensively researched the archives.
32 CKS: PRC 28/10/292. Unfortunately, the inventory in Winzar, 'Peirce House' omitted
the crucial line.
33 See G. White, English Lantern Clocks, 1989; P.O. Dawson, C.B. Drover and D.W.
Parkes, Early English Clocks, 1982 (reprinted 2003).
34 The earliest surviving Kentish lantern clocks are by the Greenhills of Ashford and date
to the 1670s and 1680s, see Pearson, 'Kent Clocks', pp. 71-8.
35 Ibid., pp. 96, 99, 148.
36 CKS: PRC 27/11/110.
37 CKS: PRC 27/33/167; and in Winzar, 'Peirce House'.
38 CKS: PRC 27/37/192.
39 See Winzar, 'Peirce House'.
40 Based on the number of hearths. Peirce House had 8 and Joseph's inventory (CKS:
PRC 27/29/159) indicates 5.
41 Based on an analysis oflost watch advertisements in the Kentish Post and its successor
the Kentish Express, listed in Kent Clocks, Appendix I.
198
CHARING CLOCKS, CLOCKMAKERS AND CLOCKKEEPERS (PART I)
APPENDIX (TABLES 1-4)
Table 1. Procurement Cost of Original Charing Church Clock (from the
churchwarden's accounts)
1626/7 Item paid for a Clock and Dyal1 to goodmane Barret
of Ashforde, beesides certaine somes moneye which
I co11ected of Sundreye persones thatt gave Frelye
of ther one accorde of the which I ame Redye to give
ane accompt unto them yf itt bee Required the som
of three powndes Fifteen shillings I saye. iij1 xv8
1629/30 paid Barret for duble pu11yes to the Clock and for
his diet ... VS vjd
paid for exchange of the Clock and spare pu11eys xviijd
paid Robert Willard for altering the pu11yes ofye
Clock and 2 staples xviijd
paid for help to reare and gidde and hould the leathers xviijd
paid Mr Brent Deering for cariag of ye newe diall
from Ashford xijd
paid Robert Willard for staples to fasson the newe watch xijd
paid Georg Cooper for cullering the hand of the watch xijd
paid Edward Do for quarters and rayles for a boxe
to receve the waightes xvjd
paid him for 26 foot ofbord to it ij8 ijd
paid him for 4 dayes worke to set the seat and boxe
for ye clock VS iiijd
paid for thris steeling a chize11 to fasson the boxe of the
Clock vjd
paid for nailles and speeckes to set ye seat and boxe for
ye Clock and to trase ye bel1 xv