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 new venue (from July 2025 onwards) is The Countryside Suite, Winwick Leisure Centre, located at Myddleton Lane, Winwick, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 8LQ.

Visitors and new members are always most welcome.

Northern Section

To be held at our NEW VENUE of The Countryside Suite, Winwick Leisure Centre, Myddleton Lane, Winwick, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 8LQ at 7.30pm for 8.00pm, unless otherwise stated

Friday 14 August 2026

Club Night: Tools & Materials

Friday 11 September 2026

Lecture: Bell Restoration By Phil Irvine

Friday 09 October

Club Night: Members 10 Minute Short Lectures / Talks

Friday 13 November

Lecture: Horology of Liverpool Docks By Darlah Thomas

Friday 11 December

Christmas: Social with theme of Horological Ephemera

Full Programme for 2026 (PDF download, updated 17th July 2026)

Reports of previous meetings 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017

Alarm Clocks (July 2026)

Alarm Clocks have been made in a huge variety of styles over hundreds of years; at our July meeting some items could be classed as ‘every-day’ while others were novel or rare. A few of them are illustrated below:

This is a Portable Alarum clock by Thomas Moreland of Chester and was made c.1820. It has a watch movement and a separate train for the alarm. The alarm setting dial on the rear of the case (below) has been set to VIII meaning the alarm will ring in eight hour’s time.

A Davidson’s Patent Automatic Memorandum Clock. Dating to 1892, this clock’s alarm was set in a novel way, within the urn. An ivorine tablet could have a message written on it which would be inserted into the time slot beside the appropriate time on the alarm set dial (below). As time passed, the drum would rotate until, at the time the alarm was set, the tablet would fall through a slot into a receptacle which made an electrical contact causing the alarm to ring. It is thought these were used in medical settings to time doses of medicine. The clock has a French platform movement.

A souvenir alarm clock in spelter was modelled on the Eifel Tower at the time of the tower’s completion in 1889. It was made for sale at the Paris World’s Fair (of 1889) which was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Appropriately it has a French movement, maker unknown.

This is one of two teasmaids which were displayed at the meeting. These originated in the 1930s, but this one was made by Pifco in 1954. Unlike earlier models which switched on the kettle when the alarm rang, this model boiled the kettle first and then the alarm rang as the kettle boiled.

Sundials (June 2026)

The topic for our June club night was sundials. Several items were brought in for display some of which are illustrated below:

We were given an update on the Seven Dials project in London. This will be familiar to many members as the replacement of the original column and dials was reported in the AHS blog in February 2013 Blog - Antiquarian Horological Society | The story of time (scroll to the second item) and added information of the original column in April 2013 Blog - Antiquarian Horological Society | The story of time (the third item).

This was the oldest of three garden sundials which were shown at our meeting. The name and date are too indistinct to read. The dial can show the time from 4am to 8pm and has information to show the adjustments required for the equation of time.

A Pilkington & Gibbs Helio-Chronometer was displayed. This item was described in AH, September 2017, page 424., shown here and in the following photograph.

This is a Sun Compass – Cole Pattern MkII which was made for use by the British military in the North African Desert during WWII. They were mounted on the armoured vehicles of the Long Range Desert Group and SAS to use the position of the Sun to determine true North. Amongst the instructions on the dial it says that the item will only give accurate time if used between Latitudes 40°N and 40°S, so it cannot be used successfully in UK!

Authors Note: There are no updates for the May 2026 meeting

Clocks and Watches featuring pictures and scenes (April 2026)

This topic inspired members to search through their collections; the variety of items ensured a very interesting evening. A selection is illustrated below:

This pair-cased watch has the casemaker’s initials IMH (John Michael Harding, Clerkenwell) and hallmark for 1836. The movement, number 59845, which is signed for J Springhall of Norwich, is full plate with a verge escapement and fusee. Its polychromatic enamel dial shows the arms and name ‘The Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity’ and bears their motto. Watch papers inside the case were marked R. Bone, Bridge Street, Fakenham.

2 11.07.24 — A watch featuring a locomotive on its dial and case, was found in an old NHS building whilst it was being cleared. The watch was made in Austria and is marked ‘Railway Timekeeper, Shock Protected, Specially Examined.’

Enamel Panels — Two items with fine enamel panels depicted landscape and romantic scenes. Both have watch movements mounted within brass frames; left the item is formed as a chaise longue with two receptacles possibly for ink. When its lid is closed, it forms the seat. The triptych, right is highly decorative.

Simpson, Cockermouth — Scenes of fox-hunting decorate the dial of this longcase which is by Walker & Hughes of Birmingham. The clock was signed Anthony Simpson of Cockermouth. Simpson died in 1812 aged only 32 but the business was continued by his wife. Fox-hunting was a very popular rural sport in Cumbria and the well-known song D'ye ken John Peel? was written there in honour of a local sheep farmer and passionate huntsman c.1820.

Swiss Suffragettes' Watches — Two silver Swiss watches supporting the Suffragettes’ Movement were displayed. Here: The dial has an image of a suffragette and has the motto ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’ and ‘WOMEN’S POLITICAL UNION’. There is also a rare PRL (Penal Reform League) badge on its watchchain. Below: A small watch with ‘VOTE FOR WOMEN’ on the dial in place of the numerals 1-12.

Wall Clocks — Two wall clocks had pictures or scenes. Firstly, a Maltese wall clock in a traditional style had a central image of the city of Medina and floral ‘spandrels’. Made to replicate the clocks which were once given as wedding gifts, this clock is of recent manufacture and has a quartz movement.

This pocket watch was issued to the German naval forces during WWII. It was manufactured in 1943 by the International Watch Co., Schaffhausen. It has a luminous dial impregnated with zinc sulphide. On the back the of case is the Kriegsmarine eagle, the ‘M’ for ‘Marine’ and the navy number 17935.This watch was in service from 1943 to May 1945 on U-boat 532 under the command of Otto Heinrich Juncker who surrendered to the Royal Navy at Liverpool when it entered Gladstone Dock on 10th May 1945.

Longcase Clocks (March 2026)

A few longcase dials and movements were brought to the meeting but some members chose to show photographs rather than the clocks themselves.

This longcase clock, bought at auction brought with it something of a puzzle. It appeared to have been made by a Mr Nelson of Pulford. This location is still a small village bordering the Eaton Hall Estate in Cheshire. A search in the records showed no indication of a clockmaker being located there. A visit to Pulford included the Grosvenor Arms hotel where it was discovered that a family by the name of Nelson had run the hotel some years ago and whist having the dial restored had requested their own name and location to be put of what was probably an anonymous dial. The search for the clock’s true maker continues…

This longcase was clearly signed Jos Catterall, Chorley (born 1763, died 1844). Its large ‘Lister’ moon was a major feature on its beautifully restored dial. The clock stands in a mahogany case.

Regulator — One of the members bought an unfinished regulator movement (right, in its current finished condition) and a suitable German clock case (similar to that on the left). The clock is wound through the hour hand, as seen right. After much work, involving altering the plates, repositioning the pillars and sourcing a compatible dial, motion works and weights, the clock is ticking happily in the owners’ home.

A set of photographs of this clock by Stephen Rimbault, London of c.1780 was shown. It plays 12 tunes on 16 bells via 25 hammers. In the arch is a central signature, strike/silent (left) and chime/silent (right) subsidiary dials, and above them are the names of its tunes, all in German and a tune selecting hand. When the tunes are selected, the bells shunt across into their required position for each tune.

Barry, Leigh — This clock made by Thomas Barry of Leigh (formerly of Ormskirk) c. 1785 was auctioned recently by Hutchinson Scott. A set of images was shown. The main feature of interest is the large arch containing a spherical moon which rotates once a month showing the moon’s phases. It also moves across the arch once a day suggesting its position in the sky. Two subsidiary dials within the chapter ring show the rise and set of the sun and the moon’s age.

Gandy, Cockermouth — Also represented only by photographs, this clock is by James Gandy of Cockermouth and was auctioned by Mitchell’s in its hometown earlier this year. It shows: an annual calendar with zodiac symbols; a 24 hour ring in the arch which is traversed by the sun and with shutters indicating sun rise and set; a ring with compass points indicates the sun’s position; a lunar and tidal dial has a small rolling moon. The clock is dated 1757.

AGM and Comtoise Clocks (February 2026)

Once the formal duties of the AGM were completed, we moved on to Comtoise clocks. Two handsome examples of the genre and plenty of books, articles and catalogues were available to view.

Comtoise Clock 2 — The garniture on this clock is of a more naturalistic design suggesting a date of manufacture later than the one above. This has a sunburst, a bearded man carrying a long staff and swirling floral motifs. Its enamel dial is signed Biard Neveu à Doudeville. The clock is of eight day duration, has a folding pendulum and is housed in a pine case. The movement can be seen through the access hatch in the image below.

Due to bad weather the January 2025 meeting was cancelled.