The Northern Section meetings offer a variety of formal lectures and club nights at their meeting hall together with staging exhibitions at local museums, demonstrations of horological conservation and visits to horological places of interest.
The Club Nights and Lectures usually alternate each month with a guest lecturer being invited to give a presentation to the meeting, often with visual aids and exhibits. For the club night a theme is chosen, and members are encouraged to bring items for display, and possibly to say a few words about them.
The meetings are friendly, relaxed and give the opportunity to meet new friends with similar interests, exchange views, ideas, and get help with solving your horological problems. As well as this you relax with refreshments whist your discussions take place.
Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 for 8:00 pm and carry on until everyone leaves, usually between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. The venue is in the church hall behind the old Trinity Chapel off Northenden Road, Sale Moor, where there is ample parking around the hall. This is located on the south side of Manchester within half a mile of Sale Railway station and close to the M60 junctions 6 and 7.
Visitors and new members are always most welcome.
Northern Section
To be held at Trinity Methodist Church, Trinity Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 3ED at 7.30pm for 8.00pm, unless otherwise stated
Friday 10 May
LECTURE: Members 10 Minute Short Lectures / Talks
Friday 14 June
Comic, Novelty and Advertising Clocks & Watches
Full Programme for 2024 (PDF download, updated 22 April)
Recent Meetings
Meeting reports for previous years: 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
An update on research into James Condliff, his family and their clocks. (March 2024)
Although many of James Condliff’s clocks are widely admired, the range of the work of three generations of Condliff clockmakers is probably better known in the north of England than elsewhere. Whilst touching upon much of the ground covered by Darlah Thomas in the London Lecture of January 2024, this talk included further information which has recently come to light. The images below illustrate some of the range of products made by the Condliff family.
Bring and display: horological items relating to X, Y and Z. (February 2024)
Members found these letters challenging, but some lateral thinking resulted in an interesting evening. Items shown are listed below and a selection of images is included:
Letter X. This being the most difficult letter, some interpretations were creative …
Ten horological reference books (X the Roman numeral for 10)
Ex-military items:-
A wristwatch by Omega dated 1943 which was issued by the RAF.
A mechanism for timing aircraft turns, probably dating to WWll, marked ‘Signal Corps US Army’, and ‘Sangamo Electric Company, Illinois’.
Letter Y.
Three pocket watches signed ‘Thomas Yates, Preston’. These were hallmarked 1849, 1860 and 1873. In addition, there were two 1920s Yates watch keys, each showing a different numbered location within Friargate, Preston.
Two items connected with America – Yanks!
A girl on a swing replaced a standard pendulum on a very decorative clock.
US government ‘Marathon’ chronometer.
A 1960s year-going longcase clock by Peter Bradley of Leicester.
Letter Z.
Three pocket watches:
James Lowe, Hazel Grove’ [Stockport].
A warranted railway timekeeper signed by CB Mazzucchi, Crook, [County Durham].
A fine movement and dial only, signed Zimmerman, Liverpool, number 16158.
Two Swiss quartz ‘carriage clocks’ made by Imhof, one signed ‘Garrard’ and the other ‘Garrard & Co., London’.
Prescot Time Ball Project opening (January 2024)
Thirty-two Northern Section members and guests were invited to a simple opening ceremony at the Prescot Time Ball Project on 13th January 2024. We were the guests of Ron Musker and his family; Ron has been the driving force behind this project. A few years ago, Ron purchased an old time ball which had once been mounted on Beale’s Building in Islington, London. When that building was demolished in 1970, the ball became redundant after eighty years’ service. It arrived in Prescot in poor condition, but Ron had plans. The Flat Iron Building in Prescot which Ron had owned since the 1970s was ready for refurbishment and as it had a significant place in the town’s horological history as the home of the Lancashire Watch Company office, strong room, a few workshops and small warehouse, it was ideal for his purpose - to have a functioning time ball on his building as a beacon of the town’s horological past. We were there to witness the project’s completion.
AGM and video presentation (January 2024)
The meeting opened with the usual greetings and notices and then the AGM followed. Once the formal proceedings were completed, we had a refreshment break and then the group was shown a video entitled The Anatomy of a Singing Bird Box. The box, thought to date to c1865, was made by Frenchman Jacques Bruguier (1801-1871) who worked in Geneva.
The film was made and narrated by John Moorhouse and explains the construction and operation of the box and its bird automaton which John had the task of restoring. He explained some of the problems he faced and detailed how to set up and adjust the mechanism.
