Edward Bates: Keeping time, keeping a village

Edward Bates at work in his shop at the foot of Cuckfield's High Street [visualised by AI and ChatGPT]

More than a clockmaker: How Edward Bates kept the village running, but why was this humble tradesman so extraordinary?

Describing Edward Bates as a clockmaker tells only part of the story. He was far more than a craftsman working at a bench. He was a technician, retailer, money-lender, valuer, librarian, letter-writer and village businessman.

For more than forty years, from 1793 to 1834, the heart of Bates's trade was keeping timepieces running - repairing, cleaning and maintaining clocks and watches provided his regular income. This entailed replacing worn pivots and bearings, repairing damaged gears, fitting new mainsprings and fusée chains and rebuilding escapement mechanisms.

a grim discovery

Cuckfield depended on the church clock as its principal source of public time, making its accuracy far more critical than it is today. Before the widespread ownership of reliable pocket watches and, later, wristwatches, the church clock regulated the daily rhythm of village life. It signalled the hours for work, meals, markets, business and worship, ensuring that the community operated to a common timetable.

As the appointed clockmaker, Bates was responsible for keeping the church clock in good working order. His contract required him to inspect, maintain and regulate the movement, carrying out any necessary repairs and winding the clock at regular intervals. He did so without fail and his diary meticulously receords the accuracy of the clock’s timekeeping - partly as evidence of his diligence but also to reassure the churchwardens that the clock was in good order.

On one occasion, Edward left it later than usual before climbing the narrow steps to the church belfry to wind the clock. In the gathering dusk, he could just make out a large, dark shape hanging above him. As his eyes adjusted, he recognised with horror the body of someone he knew well - the church sexton, Robert Hart, lifeless and suspended from a bell rope. The experience left a lasting impression on him. Afterwards he remarked, 'Never again, as long as I live, will I wind that old clock in the dusk.'

supplier of clocks

Edward’s diary records that when a customer asked him to supply a new clock, he would order the necessary parts and assemble the finished timepiece from components supplied by London makers.

Clerkenwell, together with Bunhill Row and the Farringdon Road area, formed the heart of London's clockmaking industry, where many of the country's leading clockmakers and watchmakers were based, their workshops renowned for producing work of the highest quality.. Bates ordered movements, dials, hands and cases from highly respected suppliers in this area.

When ordering expensive parts from suppliers, Bates took precautions against theft. Payments sent by mail coach often included banknotes torn in half, with the remaining halves dispatched separately. A stolen half-note was worthless without its matching counterpart. This security precaution was standard practice and recognised by the banks. A payment sent to London in the morning might receive a response the very same afternoon.

The banknotes he used were usually issed by local banks including Horsham, Reigate, East Grinstead and Lewes but also by the Bank of England. He would diligently recorded their serial numbers before despatch.

Bates preferred to use coach services drawn by four horses, which were generally faster, less likely to get bogged down on poor roads and so more secure. He noted the driver's name and built trusted relationships with particular coachmen.

In an age when such services were limited in rural communities, before modern banking and parcel tracking, such measures were essential safeguards for a businessman ordering goods from distant suppliers. When the clock parts arrived by coach he quickly assembled the timepiece in his workshop.

Bates favoured one of the best-known stagecoach services Crossweller & Co’s Blue Coaches. which operated between Brighton and London during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By 1811, no fewer than 28 coaches ran between London and Brighton each day.

Unlike clocks, watches arrived in Cuckfield ready-made from his London supplier. His customer might choose an elaborately painted dial, and perhaps opt for a specific case to house the movement. Bates's London supplier could provide watches in a variety of styles and prices, allowing him to meet the differing tastes and budgets of his customers.

On arrival in his shop, Bates engraved ‘Edward Bates’ on the decorative dust cover protecting the movement and a printed watch paper was tucked inside the case, serving both as an advertisement and as a guarantee of his workmanship.

turnaround of clocks

If a rural clockmaker made every component of a longcase clock movement from raw brass and steel, it would entail days or even weeks of work.. Even a basic 30-hour movement could easily take 40–100 hours of skilled and painstaking labour, spread over several weeks. He would have to cut gear-wheel teeth by hand, make pinions, turn arbors, file pivots and construct the escapement, assemble the movement, test its reliability and regulate its timekeeping.

trade supply of movements

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, specialist suppliers were helping to speed up the process by selling wheel blanks, pinions and escapement parts. This could cut production time to just a few days.

Like most trained clockmakers of his generation, Bates had been an apprentice and trained by an experienced clockmaker - Watt (Walter) Heaseman a clockmaker in Lindfield. This was in 1782 when Edward was 15 and he may have been there for up to 8 years when he took over the business run by the Gatlands in Cuckfield. He would have learned how to manufacture a complete movement from raw materials, although by the early 1800s there was little commercial advantage in doing so.

Specialist suppliers could provide high-quality movements and individual components at competitive prices, enabling craftsmen like Bates to devote their time to assembling, regulating and repairing clocks. This growing division of labour also helped fuel England's successful export trade in clocks and watches, particularly to America.

While some clockmaking businesses built their reputation by making distinctive in-house movements, many rural craftsmen worked differently. They placed greater emphasis on reliability and value for money than on ornate or intricate workmanship..

They preferred to use bought-in movements, dials, hands and cases then sold newly made clocks under their own names. The name painted on the dial was usually that of the retailer or local clockmaker, not the manufacturer of the movement. It represented the craftsman's reputation and his guarantee of the finished product rather than authorship of every component.

We know that the wooden cases for Bates's longcase clocks were supplied by a 'Mr Neale'. This was most likely William Neal, a clockmaker and watchmaker. The Sussex Advertiser records that, in December 1813, he attempted to sell his house in Lindfield with the help of Cuckfield solicitor Mr Waller.

The newspaper also records that, in January 1823, to settle his business debts, Neal had to sell the contents of his house and stock-in-trade. These included: ‘Two 30-hour clocks and cases, one eight-day ditto and case, sundry watch chains, seals, keys, and glasses, spectacles, scissors, knives, combs, spurs, ear-rings, handkerchief pins, brooches, &e. The whole of which with benches, vice and sundry tools, may be taken by fair appraisement.’

However, there remains a remote possibility that the 'Mr Neale' mentioned in Bates's diary belonged to another Neal family. Later in the century a ‘Neale’ [sic] family were carriage builders (coachbuilders), wheelwrights and general smiths at Whiteman’s Green. It is therefore possible that one of their forebears may have been the carpenter who supplied Bates's clock cases more locally. The balance of the evidence suggests that this was William Neal, the Lindfield clockmaker and watchmaker.

Incidentally, it was not uncommon for craftsmen who made coffins and provided funeral services also to make longcase clock cases for the local clockmakers as a sideline.

delivery time for a new clock

Once the components had arrived - including the case with perhaps an eight-day or 30-hour movement from London, assembly was remarkably quick. Fitting the movement into the case and completing the clock could take as little as eight minutes.

But how long if the movement was also made?

The experience of Samuel Roberts, a farmer-clockmaker from Llanfair Caereinion, in mid-Wales provides us with a surprising answer. Born around 1720, Roberts was largely self-taught and is believed to have made around 600 clocks between 1743 and 1787. He sold them at modest prices, often to friends and neighbours, while continuing to run his farm.

Like Bates, Roberts did not work alone. The cases for his clocks were made by his neighbour, a joiner named John Lloyd. Village craftsmen often collaborated, each contributing their specialist skills.

university research

Research by Dr Allun C. Davies of Queen's University Belfast, based on Roberts's business records, shows that at the height of production, Roberts and Lloyd were completed a new longcase clock roughly every two days. This was all the more remarkable because Roberts was also managing a small working farm.

Initially demand for Roberts's clocks came from his circle of farming friends wanting cheap, reliable, good-looking clocks. Once this need had been satisfied Roberts realised that his profitable sideline was under threat, he devised an ingenious way forward. He introduced an innovative system of payment by inviting customers to subscribe by paying monthly instalments. Each time a clock was completed, the names of the subscribers were entered into a draw, and the successful subscriiber received the newly finished clock.

One of Roberts’s splendid clocks can be seen today in the National Museum of Wales.

rural clock manufacture in Sussex

The story of Samuel Roberts illustrates the challenges faced by rural clockmakers in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Surviving examples suggest that many of the larger houses and farmsteads in and around Cuckfield contained either a Bates or a Gatland clock. Properly maintained, these clocks could continue to keep good time for two centuries or more.

Clocks were purchased mainly by the gentry, farmers and successful tradesmen. This was at a time when the rest of the local population were living in varying degrees of poverty. Most houses contained few possessions beyond basic furniture and everyday household necessities. Cuckfield had a population of about 2000, and about half were described as poor.

poverty

The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought peace, but it also ushered in a period of severe economic hardship across Sussex. Thousands of soldiers and sailors returned home seeking employment at a time when wartime demand had collapsed. Jobs were scarce, wages fell and many agricultural labourers and tradesmen struggled to support their families.

A succession of poor harvests and high food prices only deepened the crisis, while the Corn Laws helped to keep the price of bread artificially high. Throughout Sussex, poverty became widespread, and many parishes experienced a sharp increase in the number of families requiring poor relief.

The county entered a prolonged period of rural poverty with agricultural unrest culminating in the Swing Riots of 1830. Cuckfield experienced its share of the violence and unrest.

Just over a decade later, Cuckfield vicar the Rev. Thomas Astley Maberley reported to the 1843 committee investigating the employment of women and children in agriculture that ‘the lower orders in this neighbourhood are not in an instructed state, nor intelligent … the cottages are not neatly kept, and are not furnished with any books but the Bible sometimes, and strictly religious works.’

competition

Although clockmakers could and did sell beyond their immediate village, neighbouring towns often had their own craftsmen supplying similar new timepieces. Competing clockmakers were to be found in Brighton (which changed over the decades from Brighthelmstone), East Grinstead, Horsham, Lewes, Lindfield, Petworth and Steyning.

In a small local market, the sale of new clocks would eventually have been likely to stagnate and, just like Roberts and Lloyd in Wales, a saturation point would have been reached. Any new clocks sold were most likely destined for customers within a few miles of the shop. Nationally, clockmakers who possessed exceptional skills, devised innovative clock movements, or built up a strong reputation were able to attract business from further afield.

For many village clockmakers, however, their core income consisted of cleaning, servicing and repairing existing clocks rather than manufacturing new ones. Keeping hundreds of clocks running year after year provided a steady and more reliable business than making new clocks from scratch.

This, I believe, largely explains the absence of entries in Bates’s diary relating to new clockmaking. There are only four references to this in over 25 years (1809-1834). However, we may be missing some entries from the Diary or that this represented only part of his business documentation.

watchmaking

Watchmaking was a highly specialised trade, distinct from clockmaking. Bates, in common with many other local clockmakers, did not manufacture any watches himself. Instead, they were all bought from a London supplier and are well documented in his diary. A local clockmaking shop might employ a watchmaker - but most relied on other specialist tradesmen to manufacture and supply these. They would also subcontract repairs and maintenance.

Bates sourced these from a supplier in London, and on arrival he would engrave the ornate cock plate with his name as retailer before offering them for sale.

a diversified business

The state of the national and local economy is clearly reflected in the pages of his diary. Bates diversified his business and offer a wide range of services beyond clock and watch repair and sales.

Customers could purchase barometers, cutlery, silverware, jewellery and spectacles. He offered engraving, repaired spectacles, sold and maintained barometers and acted as an expert valuer. He probably sold second-hand clocks and watches.

Bates lent money to villagers, sometimes performing a role similar to that of a pawnbroker. He promoted local property sales by circulating catalogues and notices. He provided a letter-writing service for those unable to write themselves. He appears to have established an early village lending library by lending books, no doubt from his own collection.

He charged for training apprentices in clock repair, while his wife passed on her expert skills in making high-quality dresses (mantua-making) and corsetry (stay-making) to the next generation. This service would have given rural gentlewomen access to fashionable clothes without having to travel to London.

Bates' contribution to the inhabitants of Cuckfield

In an age before banks, repair shops, opticians, libraries and estate agents, Edward Bates filled many of these valuable local services himself. His workshop was not simply a clock shop; it was an important hub of village life, where people came for practical help, financial assistance, information, education and, of course, timekeeping.

sources

Edward Bates' Diary is kept at the West Sussex Record Office, Chichester

Reference Number: Acc11600 / Add Mss 52249 Title: Commonplace Book of Edward Bates, clockmaker of Cuckfield and Date: logged between c1808-1834 [our corrected dates] WS dates show genealogical start date logged in the diary.

Clock movement manufacture in seventeenth-century London https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/documents/Movement_manufacture_in_C17_London_wm6.pdf

Was there high-quality, wholesale, clock movement manufacture in seventeenth-century London? www.ahsoc.org/blog/was-there-high-quality-wholesale-clock-movement-manufacture-in-seventeenth-century-london/

Commissioners on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture by Great Britain. Poor Law Commissioners, 1843 www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Reports_of_Special_Assistant_Poor_Law_Co/bqo2AAAAMAAJ?q=&gbpv=1#f=false

suppliers we know that Edward Bates used

John Tyte 1822/3, in Farringdon Road (then called Coppice Row). The Tytes are well known west country clockmaking family, who also made church turret clocks and silversmiths, but John was based in London. [www.mayfieldbooks.co.uk/resources/Tyte:Wells.pdf]

Watches were bought in from Charles Smith, watch manufacturer, 118 Bunhill Row, St. Luke’s was a London hub (C18th-C19th for watch / clock trade. Smith’s most likely wholesale supply only)

Long case clocks were bought from William Neal, a clockmaker and watchmaker in Lindfield.

Some other parts were bougt from Watt (Walter) Heaseman (1748-1806). Edward Bates was apprenticed to Watt at age 15 to Watt who was 34.

Mr Boar supplied a mahogany clock case which in 1811 was paid for by Charles Juniper, landlord of Rose & Crown.

Kleyser & Tritschler, clock & watch makers, ‘Wholesale & retail and for Exportation’ at 405 Oxford Street (‘between Charles Street & Dean Street’).

Timber supplier was encrypted in the diary ‘Mr Crawfords Timber’.

Contributed by Malcolm Davison.

Visit Cuckfield Museum, follow the link for details https://cuckfieldmuseum.org.