Following on from Sunday’s clock theme, I thought I’d mention “Grandfather’s Clock”.
Now I do actually have my grandfather’s clock. It is late Victorian alarm clock…and how do I know? Two reasons, firstly, a repairer has put a date inside when he worked on it and secondly, it plays “Soldiers of the Queen” as an alarm instead of a bell.
The Queen of course, being Victoria.
Now I expect everyone has heard the song “My Grandfather’s Clock”, the one that ‘stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died’.
It was of course not a mantle clock but a Longcase clock.
The song was written by the self taught composer and lyricist Henry C Work (1832-1884). The story goes that in 1874 he was visiting England and stayed at the George Hotel in Piercebridge near Darlington. He noticed that the Longcase clock in the hall was not going and found out from the proprietor the story of why this was so.
Early, that century, the Hotel had been owned by two brothers called Jenkins. The clock had been bought to mark the birth of the eldest son, some 90 years earlier.
The clock had an eight-day movement and had always been extremely reliable, however when the younger brother fell ill and died, the clock started to lose time.
It got worse and worse until it was losing over a quarter of an hour a day.
Then a couple of years later, the other brother, who was nearly 90 was taken ill and died at five passed eleven.
At this exact time the clock downstairs stopped.
New people took over the George but the clock defied all attempts by experts to get it going again.
Henry Work was so intrigued by this that he thought of writing a song about it.
The rest is history, as they say, but since Work published his song, most people refer to Longcase clocks as “Grandfather Clocks” and I believe this old clock still does not go and still shows the time, as five passed eleven.
2 comments:
I have heard about clocks stopping when someone dies, but I cannot understand how a mechanical thing, such as clocks would know what's happened?
I was watching a programme on T.V. a long time ago, and a man said he had received a phone call form his mother to tell him his father had unexpectactly died.
Of course he was very upset and went round to his mother's to comfort her, while he was there he noticed the clock had stopped at a certain time. He told his mum and she nearly fainted, it was the exact time his father had died.
A few weeks later his mum was rushed into hospital and unfortunately she passed away, when he went round to his mother's house to sort things out, he noticed the clock had stopped again, He later found out that that was the exact time his mother had died in hospital.
But, how does a clock know???
One of those funny things that happen in life that no-one can really explain.
Mind you, I love hearing about these things because it really makes me think. (Yes, a dangerous pasttime!)
Hi Annette,
Thanks for such an interesting tale.
What I may do, is to look into this a bit further and after a bit of research, post a bit on my findings.
You are quite right...a clock or any other mechanical item cannot "know" about things happening around it. I shall look into it, and report back...as they say.
All the best...Bernard
Post a Comment