BEHIND THE FIND : THE MUSEUM OF TIMEKEEPING
Speaking Telephones, Dollar Watches and A Watch Crafted for The Hunt
Tucked away between the Nottinghamshire Towns of Newark and Southwell is the picturesque and idyllic English village of Upton. A linear village typical of the area, stone cottages and farmhouses cluster around the main street. There is one pub, The Cross Keys, a village hall and the neoclassical, Grade II* Listed and cheerful yellow Upton Hall.
The current hall was built in 1828 by Thomas Wright but the site itself has witnessed a long and turbulent history from the Norman Conquest, the devastation of the Plague and the English Civil War. However, pulling through the leafy driveway up onto the 10 acre grounds of Upton Hall, it wasn’t any of Upton’s more ancient history that had drawn us here today, there wasn’t even a metal detector in the car, no instead we have come to visit the hidden gem that is the Museum of Timekeeping and to dig deeper into the lost histories behind two recently unearthed pocket watches that were nestled safely into Ellie’s bag.
Upton Hall has been home to the British Horological Institute since 1972 and in 1994 they established the Museum of Timekeeping within its 72 grand rooms. An independent and entirely donation led museum it costs just £10 to enter and explore the whole history of timekeeping, from the earliest timepieces such as astrolabes, sundials and water clocks, to the watch worn by Captain Scott on his ill-fated polar expedition and the incredibly engineered machines of the General Post Office’s first Speaking Clock. It’s open for seasonal hours between March and October and is every bit a working museum, with many of the timepieces on display in working action. If you are lucky enough to be standing in the Main Hall on the stroke of the hour then get ready to be surrounded by an orchestra of chimes as every piece faithfully strikes the hour.
t’s open for seasonal hours between March and October and is every bit a working museum, with many of the timepieces on display in working action.
The museum’s 8,000 - 10,000 strong collection was originally begun by the British Horological Institute at the time of its founding in 1858, with its members donating and collecting many valuable and rare clocks, watches, timepieces, books, tools and parts all in the aim of supporting the education and tradition of clock and watch making. Marvelling at the grand and elaborately painted and engraved faces of the tall pendulum clocks in the Main Hall we are found by Dr Rebeccca Struthers, the watchmaker, historian, museum trustee, and British Horological Institute fellow. It’s on her invitation that we have arrived today and she happily takes us up to her favourite room in the building, the Library, spouting off various facts and snippets about the history of the timepieces that we pass on the way.
Rebecca has recently published her first book, ‘Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History of Time.’ a passion project that perfectly combines her love of horology and object histories with her craving and addiction to education. Within its 288 pages are the intricate and personal history of watches and time told from Rebecca’s workshop bench. So there’s no better person to help us reveal the lost history trapped into our found pocket watches and sat at the large research table surrounded by the grand library of almost 5,000 books and documents, a collection that is widely acknowledged as one of the finest sources of horological information in the world, there’s no better place for it.
Within its 288 pages are the intricate and personal history of watches and time told from Rebecca’s workshop bench.
Pocket Watches were first invented in 1510 by German Watchmaker Peter Henlein but the name for them was actually coined by King Charles II who started the trend of placing the small watch inside the pocket of his waistcoat. The trend soon boomed and the pocket watch rapidly became a status piece amongst the gentlemen of the upper classes, an item so treasured that they were often passed down through the male lines of the family as heirlooms. Even for the more middle and lower classes of society the humble pocket watch became an incredibly important item as whilst they lacked the glitz and the glam of the pocket watch of the elite many workers relied on a pocket watch for accurate timekeeping.
In our almost three years of metal detecting we have only found two pocket watches, and one of them doesn’t even have a movement, but each one has been carefully treasured and kept, just waiting for their moment to reveal their stories. In the hands of Rebecca they seem to sing to her, revealing more in just mere minutes than Ellie could research in a lifetime.
From the small pasture field that houses the annual Village Fete we unearthed a slightly crumpled, shiny gold, pocket watch case. Perhaps lost during one too many village shenanigans and bunting filled coronation parties, never found in the long grasses and eventually swallowed by the earth. It may have seen slightly better days but it still has a voice for Rebecca who revealed it is a 1900’s era rolled gold pocket watch case. Rolled gold is a technique that is similar to gold gilting, but it is much more durable, long lasting and is often used for jewellery and of course pocket watches. Often the gold was rolled on top of the base metal layer in various thicknesses, available depending upon your budget, each thickness would be declared through an engraving upon the back that would make such claims as ‘guaranteed for 10 years of wear’.
It is only through the eyes and hands of an experienced watchmaker that such objects are able to reveal their histories as certain elements such as the spring on the front of the casing show this case to be an example of a hunter or half hunter style pocket watch. Early pocket watches often possessed an enamel face which was easy to break, especially on horseback as part of the hunt, so the ‘hunter’ pocket watch was developed incorporating a front spring hinged cover that protected the pocket watch’s face and was easily opened with one hand. The half hunter simply had a small glass window within this case that made it possible to read the time without having to open the pocket watch. Quite an important and high quality pocket watch of the era that would have been quite the loss to the gentleman of the time.
In the hands of Rebecca they seem to sing to her, revealing more in just mere minutes than Ellie could research in a lifetime.
Rather excitingly the second pocket watch that we brought to the table still possessed its movement and much of its original dial. Found almost at the top of the steepest hill on our permission it’s easy to imagine how a quick drop, tumble and the pocket watch would be lost never to be seen again. Once again in the experienced hands of Rebecca its identity was carefully unpacked and revealed through the slight features present within its rusty workings. Coming from the 1910’s this pocket watch is an example of the famous ‘Dollar Watch’ created by the American Company, Ingersoll.
The Ingersoll brothers had a rather ambitious plan of offering Ingersoll watches to the general public at an affordable price, all whilst maintaining real quality and credibility. By perfecting the technique of standardised mass production and incorporating elements such as a pressed paper dial to imitate enamel and nickel plating in replace of silver, the production of a pocket watch was able to be condensed down to the price of just a dollar. The average day's wage for an American at the time and none of this made them any less technically sound than other watches of the era. They may have been more bulky and budget but they kept ‘perfect time’, functioned with great success and were able to be dismantled, repaired and serviced just as well as any other period counterpart.
Ingersoll thrust what was previously a gatekept and difficult achievement for the average person, accurate timekeeping, right into the forefront of the watch market. Greatly improving the accessibility of something that we often take for granted in today's era. In twenty years forty million dollar watches were sold and they became such a part of society that the watch pocket was introduced for the first time into the workwear of the era, the Levis 101 Jeans.
Who would have known that such important and groundbreaking social history could be contained within the rusty, dirt grained, surfaces of our humble pocket watch finds. But sat on the dark polished surface of the wooden research table in the Museum of Timekeeping’s Library with Rebecca Struthers. Poring over the details of these two pocket watches and comparing them to examples of how they would have looked before over a century of loss in the ground, their histories are suddenly very tangible and within grasp. We can’t help but leave this charming museum engrossed in a brand new appreciation and fascination in the history of timekeeping, pocket watches and after an eye opening talk on one of the Museum's more treasured social histories, speaking telephones.
