Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks dating back to 1610. These drawings and other early records prior to 1780 went missing but other records from that date are on loan to the London Metropolitan Archives where the public have access.
For 30 years, it maintained all the clocks at the Palace of Westminster, including the Great Clock. Other than Thwaites & Reed, associated tradenames are Aynsworth Thwaites, John Thwaites, and was trade supplier of movements to many well known historic clockmakers including Dutton, Dwerrihouse, Ellicott and Vulliamy and in more recent times well known retailers including The Franklin Mint, Asprey and Garrards. During its ownership by FW Elliott Ltd it also made movements under the Elliott brand.
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History
John Thwaites was a clockmaker at the beginning of the 17th century and from this extended family Aynsworth Thwaites founded the business now known as Thwaites & Reed in Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, London in 1740, and continued there until 1780. Thereafter the firm traded from Bowling Green Lane. The company's earliest recorded commission and still in use, was a turret clock for Horseguards Parade made in 1740 but not finished until 1768, and a domestic long-clock about 1770 for the British East India Company. The complexity of the Horseguards clock is the result of many previous years' clockmaking experience , but older work has not been identified. Aynsworth was succeeded by John Thwaites, who was head of the firm from 1780 to 1816, and master of the Clockmakers' Company in 1815, 1819, and 1820. In 1816, Thwaites partnered with George Jeremiah Reed, and the firm became Thwaites & Reed. John Thwaites remained at the firm's head until 1842. In 1856 Thomas Buggins purchased the business from Henrietta Reed, the widow of George Jeremiah Reed, and the business remained in the Buggins family for four generations, the last being Geoffrey Thomas Edwin Buggins who was awarded the MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to export; he was also the grantee of the Royal Warrant. Under the Buggins directorship, many well-known clocks were built. Fine examples are the Fortnum and Mason automaton, the Financial Times Astronomical clock, two reproductions of the historical Giovanni di Dondi clock and restoration of the Hampton Court Clock. In 1969 the family firm brought in outsiders to manage its business and in 1975 the business was moved to premises in Sussex. The following year the Great Clock at Westminster (Big Ben) suffered catastrophic damage through fatigue and it was repaired and reinstalled in full working order in time for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. In the following year, financial problems culminated in the British Government acquiring control of Thwaites & Reed. In 1978 it was acquired from the Government by FW Elliott Ltd who owned Thwaites & Reed Limited until it was sold in 1991 to Melvyn Lee. The historic documents on loan to the London Metropolitan Archives (ref MS 6788-6808) cover the periods from 1780 to 1955. Dunstable Town Council archives had a catalogue of turret clocks made up to 1878 and there is a later incomplete list showing the date of supply and purchasers of turret clocks to 1902. Up to 1900, 2978 domestic clocks were made with serial numbers in chronological order. Other clocks were not listed but from 1972 to 1980 10 types of replica clocks. including the Benjamin Franklin clock, Congreve Rolling Ball Clock, various Skeleton clocks and the Rack and Drum clock, with serial numbers from 1 to 100 were made as limited editions.
Maps Thwaites & Reed
Clocks
- Clock at Horseguards Parade (1756)
- Tower Clock at St. Michael's Church in Charleston, SC (1764)
- East India Company, India (1770)
- Lincoln Cathedral north west tower (1775)
- The Royal Clock in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, Australia.
- Bracken House Clock with Zodiac Calendar and Churchill's face emblazoned on it (1955?) - Bracken House, former home of the Financial Times)
- Royal Small Arms Factory Clock Tower (c 1783)
- Clock at All Saints Church, Wokingham (1817)
- St. John's Church, Parramatta, NSW, Australia - clock in north tower (1821)
- St John's Anglican Church, New Town, Tasmania, Australia (1818)
- Holy Trinity Old Church, Margate (1845)
- The first Clock of the Torre Malakoff, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil (1854).
- St. George Tabernacle, St. George, Utah,
- Prince Albert Memorial Clocktower, Hastings - Gothic style (1864)
- Bow Bells at St Mary-le-Bow electric clock mechanism (1961)
- Fortnum & Mason of Piccadilly, with automata jacks of the founders, Fortnum & Mason in 19th Century costumes. (1964)
- Mast House Clock, Simon's Town Naval Base, South Africa (1816)
- Penitentiary Chapel, Campbell St Gaol, Hobart, Australia (1828)
- Queen Victoria Building, Sydney Australia.
- St. Peter's Church, St George, Bermuda
- St. Luke's Anglican Church, Richmond Tasmania, installed in 1922 (originally installed in St David's Church Hobart in 1828)
External links
- Media related to Thwaites & Reed at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
Footnotes
References
- Industries: Clock and watch-making, A History of the County of Middlesex, 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton, 1911, pp. 158-65 .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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