Our Grandfather Clock

By: Steve Gee

How does that saying go? - "Time waits for no man". A grandfather clock has stood in the corner of the dining room at my parent's house for as long as they have been married. This clock is an antique and it was a bargain at the auction price of £5. The clock has been with them since they first set up home and almost 60 years later the grandfather clock remains a much-loved member of the family.

When they brought it home, it was a pile of pieces on the floor of the kitchen but my father performed some delicate clock repair on it and managed to get it going.

I remember using the gap behind the grandfather clock for hide and seek (until I grew too big) and hiding my grandmother's handbag in the case so she couldn't go home one day! The gentle tick tock has been a comfort on many occasions, particularly on sleepless nights, the unmistakable grandfather clock chime letting me know the time without having to disturb anyone else.

Children and grandchildren have all peeked inside to watch the pendulum swing or to watch Grandad going through the ceremony of winding the weights up each week at precisely 7.25 am on a Sunday. This was the only time in the morning he could fit the key into both the keyholes on the face because only then were the grandfather clock hands in the right place!

Age has taken it's toll on the grandfather clock I'm afraid and it has had to have the clock repair guy come and give it some tender loving care many times. 20 years ago my parents moved house and they decided that it would be a good opportunity to have the clock cleaned and serviced before it took it's place in the new home. The clock repair specialist who did the work became interested in the clocks history because he noticed that the casing was relatively modern compared to the movement, which probably indicated early 20th century.

He was so interested that he decided to take some photographs of the grandfather clock and movement and sent them to the British Museum in London to see if they could identify it. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he felt compelled to find out what this clock was all about. The British Museum did identify the clock and they told us that our clock was a wall clock. Well this I have to say astonished us. Apparently it wasn't originally built as a grandfather clock at all.

The maker of our grandfather clock was a Dutchman called A. Fromanteel although we are not sure which one, the father Ahasuerus who came to England in 1620 and developed the pendulum clock in 1658 or Abraham, it certainly has a much finer pedigree than we do!

The Fromanteel family were true innovators and inventors and they developed the first clock that was able to keep time in all weathers. Every time they built a new clock they would add a new feature like the pillar movement on our clock or the date mechanism, which I'm afraid, hasn't worked on ours for years. It would be interesting to do more research on the clock and it's builders but perhaps that will have to wait until I have a little more spare time.

While this new information is very interesting it has made no difference to us. We have no plans to sell it as a high priced antique. It's still the same old grandfather clock that has given us such fond memories over the years. Our lives and father time moves on but the clock is staying where it is.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Steve is a software engineer and owner of The Grandfather Clock www.thegrandfatherclock.com

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