This caused ripples in Downing Street, which had announced earlier this year that Britain would leave the EU “when Big Ben bongs midnight” on March 29, 2019, the deadline for the two-year Article 50 withdrawal process.
The heartbeat of horology in the UK is the British Horological Institute, whose prime purpose today is to provide education to the thousands of people who make, repair, restore, collect and sell clocks and other timepieces.
The institute is based at Upton Hall, near Newark in Nottinghamshire, where Josephine Stephens is launching a clock and watches fair on Sunday, September 10, on the BHI’s behalf. Stephens, who also runs the biannual Essex Clock and Watch Fair in Colchester, is hoping for 40 standholders at the new event.
She said: “The BHI decided to run this first clock and watch fair at Upton Hall to give members and the public, or any enthusiast for all things horological, an opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals, to discuss problems or issues with their own clocks, buy a missing part or tool they have been searching for, or network to find someone who can make it for them.
“This is an opportunity for enthusiasts to buy a missing part or tool for their own clocks, or network to find someone who can make it for them
“There will be dealers hoping to find specific clocks, collectors looking for the next clock or watch on their list or starter-makers looking for projects.”
The fair is all organised and run by volunteers and proceeds will go to the BHI to help with training in horology.
Contact Stephens on 07834 235672 or horologist007@outlook.com.
Institute factfile
In the 19th century the clock and watch industry was reeling with assaults from abroad, both in new technology and design. Edward Daniel Johnson, a watch and chronometer maker in Clerkenwell, proposed in 1858 the foundation of the British Horological Institute.
The BHI’s Second World War bomb-damaged headquarters in Clerkenwell were finally vacated only in 1972 for Upton Hall, near Newark in Nottinghamshire. Upton Hall is where the BHI clock and watch fair will be launched on September 10.
