Time waits for no man ? or woman. The grandfather clock in my parent's house has stood in the corner of the dining room from the time of their marriage. This antique clock was a bargain at the purchase price of ?5 at an auction when they first set up home and nearly 60 years later the grandfather clock is still a much loved part 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.

There has now been three generations of our family in awe at the splendour and fine machinery of the clock. You just can't help but be amazed when you look inside and watch the pendulum swing and the tiny cogs go round. Sunday mornings at 7:25am was the time that Grandad would wind up the grandfather clock. It had to be done precisely at that time every week because that was the time that the hands of the clock were clear of both keyholes. The whole family would gather just to watch him do it. Boy we were easy to please in those days.

The grandfather clock has had its moments though! The mechanism has become temperamental with age and has undergone clock repair a number of times. When my parents moved 20 years' ago, the grandfather clock went with them and they decided to have it cleaned and refurbished. The specialist who came to see it was intrigued because the case was a 'modern' one (remember this is an antique clock and probably means 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 Museum told us that it was A. Fromanteel, a Dutchman who built the grandfather clock although there were two A. Fromanteels. Ahasuerus, and Abraham, his son. Which one of them was responsible for our 'wall' clock is still not known. We realised then that our much-loved grandfather clock was actually an important part of clock history because Ahasuerus came to England in 1620 and in 1658 he developed the first pendulum clock.

The Fromanteels were great inventors and innovators and they designed the first clock that kept good time no matter what the weather was like. Each time they made a new clock they added a new feature such as the pillar movement on our clock or the date mechanism, which sadly to say, hasn't worked on ours for a very long time. It would be interesting to research the clock more extensively as well as it's builders but that will have to wait until I have a little more spare time I'm afraid.

While all this new information about our grandfather clock is very interesting it has made no difference to us at all. We have no intention to sell it as an antique for lots of money. It remains the same old grandfather clock that has given us many good memories over the years. Life and father time marches on but the clock isn't going anywhere.