Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The company claim to be the oldest clock manufacturer in the world, originally established in 1690, and have been part of the
Smith of Derby Group
Smith of Derby Group is a clockmakers, clockmaker based in Derby, England founded in 1856. Smith of Derby has been operated continuously under five generations of the Smith family.
History
John Smith (21 December 1813 - 1886)clockmaker
A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly t ...
s,
Thwaites & Reed
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 dati ...
, who claim to have been in continuous manufacture since before 1740, with antecedents to 1610.
History
William Joyce began in the
North Shropshire
North Shropshire was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Shropshire, England from 1974 to 2009. The district council was based at Edinburgh House in Wem. Other settlements included the towns of Ellesmere, Shropshire, Elles ...
village of Cockshutt making longcase clocks. The family business was handed down from father to son and in 1790 moved to High Street,
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Whitchurch is a market town in the north of Shropshire, England. It lies east of the Wales, Welsh border, 2 miles south of the Cheshire border, north of the county town of Shrewsbury, south of Chester, and east of Wrexham. At the 2021 Unit ...
. In 1834 Thomas Joyce made large clocks for local churches and public buildings. In 1849 the company copied the Big Ben escapement designed by Lord Grimthorpe. J. B. Joyce also installed synchronous electric clocks in a number of railway stations, including Liverpool's Lime Street Station,
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...
in Wales, and
Carnforth
Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 reco ...
in Lancashire. In 1904 J. B. Joyce moved to Station Road, Whitchurch. John Edgar Howard Smith (19071983), a former managing director of Smith of Derby Group, designed the first and subsequent synchronous electric movements for J. B. Joyce, and their associated electromechanical bell striking units.
In 1964, Norman Joyce, the last member of the Joyce family, retired and sold the company to Smith of Derby. During the 1970s, many of the mechanical clocks were changed to use the electric motors made by the Smith parent company. However, J. B. Joyce continued to operate as a separate company, with mainly heritage work being carried out in the factory up to 2012, when a timedbid auction was held to sell off surplus equipment, tools, and clock parts, at the Station Road premises. Interior designers, collectors of historic items, and aficionados of J. B. Joyce, joined to bid for a "piece of horological history".
Custom House
A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...
, Shanghai
Ayuntamiento, Ciudad del Cabo, Sudáfrica, 2018-07-19, DD 08.jpg , Cape Town City Hall, Cape Town
Martin Place - panoramio - Maksym Kozlenko.jpg,
General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...
, Sydney
See also
*
List of oldest companies
The oldest companies in the world are the brands and companies which remain operating (either in whole or in part) since inception, excluding associations and List of oldest universities in continuous operation, educational, government, or relig ...
*
Clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...
*
List of clocks
This is a list of clocks that have attained notability because of their historical importance, accuracy, exceptional artistry, architectural value, or size.
Africa Morocco
* Dar al-Magana, water clock completed in 1357
* Dar al-Muwaqqit, w ...