About me

I started my working life as an electromechanical engineer, then gained further knowledge of very specific programming for the telecoms industry and picked up a small amount of basic electronics knowledge in recent times. Along the way I gained a recognised diploma in Antique Clock restoration and conservation at West Dean College. In 2011 I discovered electric clocks and slave clocks and these have been my main interest over the years. As my interest grew i decided to specialise in them more.

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I specialise in Ferranti and Vitascope (its got a Ferranti mechanism in it) repair because I like them and also have a good selection of spares and I know exactly what they should look like. Writing my book on Ferranti helped me gain a massive amount of knowledge about the company and it’s products.

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This is work that I carry out in my spare time while I’m not in my main job and so things take a little longer including answering emails. But my aim is to keep every Ferranti clock running and keep all the slave clocks working with their original mechanism and not be converted to a quartz mechanism (which I don’t do).

Having taken the ‘high moral ground’ with that, I can see that from a commercial point of view to make a good profit the best way is to refit with a quartz mechanism. It’s also easier to explain to the customer who may not be a clock enthusiast. When the clock is particularly distinctive I think that is a real shame. Anyway, if any of those operations have a stack of removed mechanisms I would be interested in purchasing them. (All types of slave mechs and Ferranti mechs)

I generally don’t work on other types of Synchronous electric clocks, like Smith’s, Temco etc as I don’t enjoy them and don’t have enough spares. There are other people in the UK who do work on those clocks.

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I’m based near Thetford, Norfolk