Blogging A-Z - April Challenge - C is for.....

C is for.....Clocks

I like clocks. There is quite a skill to making a timepiece. This clock is a real favourite of mine and has quite a story. We bought the clock new about 9 years ago from the department store Debenhams. We saw the clock in the Guildford store and I was smitten. We drove home, 200 miles and more than 3 hours of travelling. All I could think of was the clock and how wonderful it would look in our lounge, with the deep green marble surrounding the dial.

We rang our local store in Exeter. They did not have any stock and could not source any. Nor could they transfer it from Guildford. We rang Guildford. Did they still have it? They did and a week later we were making familiar drive up the A303 to Guildford to purchase the clock.

Frequent visitors to this blog, will possibly remember that I have a particular interest in the rural Surrey village of Puttenham where my ancestors have lived since 1724. As my interest steadily turned into an obsession, albeit, a healthy one! I came across a reference to a rather helpful 18th Century Curate called Charles Kerry. Kerry kept a series of papers called the Kerry Manuscripts and detailed the trivial information of the village. It is really fascinating to see the life of such a small village come alive on the pages.

Volume 4 of the manuscripts refers to a clock maker called Philip Avenell. A pedigree of the Avenell family which can trace back to the mid 1500s in Puttenham is HERE

Incidentally, the Mr Budd referred to on the above page is an ancestor of mine and alas the clock has not passed down through the family nor have I managed to locate one, but one would be a lovely acquisition to our home.