A chance discussion about things we collect with Mick at work, fulfilled a life long ambition of mine. I had read about clockmaker John Boot, 40 years or more ago & in my quest over the years to photograph one of his clocks, I had drawn a blank. In my search I had been to the nearby British Horological Institute at Upton Hall, Southwell & while on holiday over the years, I had visited Belmont House in Kent, Tymperley's Clock Museum in Colchester, as well as checking out the long case clocks in Colchester Castle, finding no examples of John's work. After all this searching, there was one on my doorstep in Micks house ! I should think that most of John's clocks will be located in the Sutton in Ashfield area.
A little bit about this clock, Mick tells me it's a marriage clock. He knows for certain that the 8 day dial is by John Boot, because of the signature & that it has been converted to a 30 hour movement. He also knows the case is not original to the dial. It still looks good & at home set in his old cottage.
A little bit of history about the Boot family. John (1704-1767) was an apprentice to Thomas Binch, clockmaker of Mansfield. John's father, also John had been a blacksmith in Nottingham. John married Sarah Warrener of Epperstone in 1725, settling in Sutton in Ashfield to have nine children, Elizabeth born 1726, Isaac 1728, John jnr. 1730, William 1735, Sarah 1737, Mary 1742, George 1744, Ann 1747 & Abigail 1749. Three of John's children followed him to become clockmakers, Elizabeth, William & John jnr.
Its about this time that Sutton is expanding from its agricultural roots to becoming a leading concern in textiles & hosiery production, which lasted until the turn of this century (2000). There is a reference to William Haslam, builder, wheelwright & carpenter in 1740 selling John several oak clock cases priced ten to thirty shillings each depending on the decoration. Many of John's thirty hour clocks only had one hand, the dial being decorated with wild roses. He also produced eight day movements with chased & silver dials, set in a dark oak case.
The site of his workshop is thought to be on the corner of King Street & the present day market place. A doctors surgery now occupies this site & before that for many years Shepperson's Cycle & Television shop. At the back of this shop backing onto New Street where some old stone buildings which could have been part of John's workshops ?
We know this dial is by John senior as John junior inscribed his dials Boot Junr. Sutton Ashfield. He married Elizabeth Godber in 1759 producing clocks around 1750. William married Melicent Hufton in 1757, producing his best work around 1770.
Elizabeth made clocks with the engraving of Eliz.th Boot Sutton on the dial. Made of oak, the trunk was shorter & with a longer base than those of her father, with a thirty hour movement. Elizabeth married Richard Foxton in 1760 after which she made only a few more clocks. Her son James Foxton born 1764 followed his mother into making clocks in 1790. These had painted dials in oak & mahogany cases, which were produced in John's original workshop on King Street.
A clock by John with a silver dial can be seen at this link.
http://www.tennants.co.uk/Catalogue/Lots/139900.aspx
Example of John junior's work can be seen at this link.
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/14251448_oak-grandfather-clock-by-john-boot-junior-1790
A clock inscribed John & William Boot can be seen at this link.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/tennants-auctioneers/catalogue-id-srten10180/lot-d206d81b-73c8-45c9-8d5e-a48b00e0c35d
Elizabeth's work can be seen here.
http://www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk/buying/auctions/FourDay-Antiques-and-Fine-Art-Sale--June-2010/lot-2756-A-George-III-oak-longcase-clock/
https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/421424e34a6b9724e9ed934bd19a097a/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/-online-only-sale-to-include-home-garden-antiqu-lot-1474/
Elizabeth's son James Foxton's clocks can be seen at these links.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-longcase-clock-foxon-sutton-167240066
https://www.bhandl.co.uk/sales/FS0033/1035-foxton-sutton-ashfield-oak-longcase-clock.aspx
https://www.clockprops.com/product-page/122-early-19th-century-longcase-clock
http://atheyantiques.co.uk/711030/oak-tavern-clock/
Added 29.6.15.
I have recently been contacted by Dave Cuckow who has sent me this e-mail.
Dave writes ;- I have a John Boot single hand oak long case clock, poss circa 1740. It has some peculiarities which I will describe later. I have spent about 150hrs restoring the beautiful dial, the varnish and wax case and the unusual 30hr movement is almost finished.
Dave then sent another e-mail containing photos & information about his clock.
Dave writes ;- After about 150 hours of work I have almost completed restoring a John Boot oak long case clock which I hope was made in about 1730. However I will admit that this type of clock and most of its features were used over a long period of time.
The movement is in very good condition and has only needed cleaning and oiling. Notably the steel iron ports have a very good burnished finish which I have endeavoured to restore. Interestingly it has a 30 hour rope and weight driven striking train and an eight day chain and weight driven going train. The seat board which I suspect is original is in thin oak with a wax finish that matches the wood of the case so it is probably made from a scrap case. The eight day going train is not a later modification as the plates are intact with no spare holes.
The case is in very thin oak with a varnish and wax finish which is original and has been largely retained. It originally had slats cut in the trunk (now blocked up) to accommodate a wide swinging pendulum (on a different clock?) but these are not now required because the bob is smaller. The blued pendulum wire is very thin (another sign of original cheapness), almost certainly oddities are because John Boot constructed a new clock taking various items from stock but kept to his 13 shillings and sixpence price. (Complete British Clocks Brian Loomes p197 ISBN 0-7153-7567-9).
One other oddity is that there is no hood door or glass and there never has been (clockmakers of Northern England Brian Loomes p39 ISBN 0-952-3270-5-8).
The case was made by Haslams of Sutton and was broken into about 30 pieces when I obtained it from Park Antiques of Menston, Yorkshire. The trunk is 12 inches wide, the clock is 6 feet 8inches tall. Quite elegant. I would like to find the whereabouts of the Haslams accounts for John Boot's cases.
The dial is 10 inches square (9 and a half inches frame) with a blued steel single hand and a silvered chapter ring or date disk. It has gilded spandrel so, a clowns mouth date aperture with a moveable date indicator hand. All restored. The chapter ring shows hours, half hours and quarters. There are no minutes. A most beautiful dial (in my opinion) similar to plate 77 the Complete British Clocks.
I believe it is a very elegant clock and an interesting example of a much loved type of clock. It must have been a real pride and joy some 280 years ago.
Many Thanks to Dave for giving me permission to add his photos & information to this post.
Added 3.11.16.
As I get many visitors to this page especially from Germany I though I would add photos & info to a long cased clock which I photographed in a Shropshire B & B in which I was staying in this year.
John Callcot of Cotton near Wem, Shropshire was the maker of this clock around 1790 & info together with a photo of a similar clock, can be seen & read at this link.
Added 9.6.17.
Another unexpected e-mail from Daniel has resulted in me adding photos of another John Boot clock to the post & as far as we know it's an 100% original John Boot clock, possibly made around 1740. So I hotfooted it to Leicestershire & took these photos.
There is this inscription on the faceplate - "Whilst thou are looking the hour is flying. If wound to the top it will be 66 days before I stop." Daniel's Mum told me that when they have had the clock running, it has lasted 66 days when fully wound up. The clock had belonged to Daniel's Great Uncle in Leicester & had been purchased in Wymeswold & that's as much as they know about the clock. That's why Daniel contacted me for more information. After contacting both Mick & Dave, they were both intrigued by the 66 days movement, with both of them saying that grandfather clocks normally only have 30 hour & 8 day movements. I have come to the conclusion that with it's ornate case & this 66 days movement this will have been John's top of the range grandfather clock.
Daniel's Mum showed me this photocopy of John's entry in Britten's Old Clocks & Watches book describing a similar clock to theirs & I have since found the page below from the 1922 edition of this book which gives a little more detail.
Added 8.11.17.
I have recently been contacted by Gwenda Yeomans who has sent me photos & info about her family's John Boot clock. Although now in London, the clock for many many years was in nearby Langwith & Bolsover. The post now numbers 4 of John's clocks & I expect there are still more close by & some a little further away to reveal themselves, with a little help from their owners !
This is the info & photos Gwenda sent.
Having seen your website I think you might be interested to know that we have a Boot clock in the family. It stood in our family home for as long as I can remember and is now with my nephew in London.
My father’s paternal grandmother was a Goucher from Scarcliffe near Bolsover. When the Gouchers first obtained the clock I don’t know, but for many years in the 1800s it would have stood in a woodsman’s cottage in Langwith woods. In the 1940's my father’s uncle turned up at my father’s house in Bolsover with a pony and dray bearing the Goucher family clock.
My husband, who was an aircraft engineer restored clocks as a hobby, he gave the clock some TLC many years ago and when I last saw it in London it was looking very fine.
I fear that I only have poor photos of it, but I will happily scan them for you. The clock is by John Boot, Sutton In Ashfield c1760, it has 30 hour movement in an oak case and is 79” tall. It has a 10” brass dial with silvered chapter ring and date rings and is signed John Boot, Sutton, Ashfield.
Many thanks Gwenda for your photos & info.
Added 5.6.18.
I have now received images of John Boot clock number 5 from Victoria Williams who lives in Herefordshire. Victoria wrote in her e-mail that her Grandmother told her that the clock was in her Grandmother's house in Tuxford, Notts. So six generations of Victoria's family have owned this clock & it may have been purchased "new" for the large 10 bedroomed farmhouse that it stood in Tuxford. The clock was then passed down to Victoria's Grandmother who lived in Derby. The clock was then on it's travels again when Victoria's mother & father first lived in Doncaster & then moved to Herefordshire. The clock now stands in Victoria's hallway of her period beamed cottage. Many Thanks, Victoria for sending me your photos & your family history of the clock.
Added 25.7.20.
Today I have added Boot clock number 6, but this time this one was made by John junior & the clock face is inscribed with his name & clock number 412. This long case clock has travelled many miles from the town of Sutton in Ashfield where it was made & is now in Florida on the other side of the Pond. I wish to thank Paige Ganti for contacting me with the photo of the close-up of the clock's dial & this info. "This clock has been in my family's possession since the late 1960's when my father was stationed at RAF Cranwell with the U.S. Air Force. It has moved with us to Maryland, then California & it now resides in Florida at my father's house. After asking Paige for more photos I received an email from her father, Jim Young who gladly supplied me the other photos. Jim wrote that when he got the clock going again a few years ago he was slightly concerned that the clock was an "economy model" or had been repaired with inferior parts. To get the clock working again Jim replaced the thin broken brass strip which connects the pendulum to the mechanism with a piece of thin aluminium from a soda drinks can. Jim say's "although this aluminium strip does not look very good it certain does the job & the clock works fine". So I then wrote back to Jim informing him that as far I could see most of the parts looked original to me & the clock was made for a set price for the lower end of the long case clock market. As we would say today - Cheap & Cheerful, but with it doing the job it was intended to do satisfactorily. To say this clock is at least 250 years old it has certainly lasted the test of time despite it's cheap looking parts. One thing I have noticed about all of these Boot clocks is that the clock cases were made from good quality hardwood by local joinery firm, Haslam's.
To alleviate Jim's concerns about the clock's mechanism only having one weight for both the running & striking operation plus other concerns I sent Jim's photos & info to Dave Cuckow the owner of a Boot clock which I have wrote about earlier in this post. This was Dave's reply & recommendations.
To alleviate Jim's concerns about the clock's mechanism only having one weight for both the running & striking operation plus other concerns I sent Jim's photos & info to Dave Cuckow the owner of a Boot clock which I have wrote about earlier in this post. This was Dave's reply & recommendations.
"Case: Probably oak with a pine backboard - treat the pine backboard (only) with a clear absorbent wood preservative. The outside should be polished with bees wax, lightly oil hinges and lock.
Movement: 30 hour single weight. Lightly lubricate and wipe the pivot holes in the plates (light motor oil) Also apply very lightly the other rubbing parts. Never lubricate the gears. Nothing wrong with pulley - just oil it.
Weight: The lead weight looks to be original and only needs to be brushed to get the dust off. You have only one weight because that's the way most 30 hour clocks were made. Yes it was made economically as 30 hour clocks were probably made for the less expensive market. The use of ropes and chains overlapped one another in time by many years.
Dial: The engraving is extensive and very good. The hands are very good. The bit of wire in the centre holding the hands should be replaced by a tapered clock pin shortened to length. Hands to show seconds are rare on 30 hour clocks and some clocks only have one hand to show the hour."
Thank you very much for this advice Dave which should be very useful to other long case clock owners. Dave also recommends the reading these two books, Complete British Clocks by Brian Loomes (Library of Congress 7866804) & Maintaining long case clocks by Nigel Barnes & Austin Jordon (ISBN 9781847975218).
Added 14.7.21.
Kate Scanlin in Australia has sent me her photos of her John Boot clock (no. 7) which her Grandmother purchased in Chapel-en-le Frith in 1969 for £12 while visiting a friend in the town. Kate's Grandfather was on an exchange lectureship at Manchester University, teaching architecture at the time.
Added 25.7.20.
Added 16.2.22.
With David Kinder sending me two photos of his sister's John Boot clock who lives in the Cotswolds, this now numbers 9 Boot clocks in this post. David continues to say that the clock is not working at the moment, but it is planned to have it serviced & have it working again soon. Great.
Added 21.4.23.
Roger Pashby purchased his John Boot junior clock (number 10) from an clock restorers in Mansfield. Roger tells me the clock is now ticking merrily in the hall of his Lincolnshire home. Thanks, Roger for sharing your photos.
If you wish to see more John Boot clocks which I have photographed,
please visit this link for Simon Nocivelli's Collection.
