Pocklington clock and watchmakers by Phil Gilbank

Above: William, Maria, Edward & John Fryer were all clock and watchmakers in Pocklington up to 1855 when John moved to Hull.

Pocklington has always been a busy market town servicing a considerable surrounding area, and it produced quite a list of watch and clock makers operating in the town from the late 18th century onwards. More than 20 individuals, including several generations of some families, were in working at Pocklington, some remaining in the town throughout their life, some alternating between Pocklington and other nearby market towns, and some moving on to bigger markets in Hull, West Yorkshire, or even America.

The earliest recorded reference is of a John Wall in the book ‘Yorkshire Clockmakers’, which states he was operating in Pocklington in the 1770s, though as yet a surviving piece of his handiwork has not been identified. However, several longcase clocks by John Watson, listed as a watchmaker at Pocklington in the 1791 Universal British Directory and said to have continued to the 1820s, have survived. Confusingly, the publication ‘Hull and East Riding Clocks’ by JES Walker (1981) also lists a brass dial longcase clock of c1770 made by a John Walker – making three local clockmakers with JW initials all producing longcase clocks in Pocklington circa 1770.

The ‘Hull and East Riding Clocks’ book also records a late C18th brass dial longcase clock made by ‘Calverley, Pocklington’. There was a notably Calverley family of ropemakers and/or joiners in Pocklington in the late C18th and into the mid C19th that may have had a clockmaking offshoot..
Local hopes of bringing home an early Pock timepiece soared when a lady, Maggie Brooks, contacted the Pocklington history group through the website in 2020 to say she had inherited a Watson of Pocklington clock and wanted to know more about the owner. In the correspondence that followed she said her sons were not really bothered in it being handed down to them and she might leave it to the history group in her will – only problem is that the clock was in Canada!

By the time Watson’s career ended the Fryer family were already up and running in Waterloo Lane. William started in the early 1800s, John took the business on, then his widow, Maria, kept it going before handing on to her son, Edward, and grandson, John Henry, in the 1850s. They then moved to Hull where John Henry was still making watches in 1911 aged 65 along with his son, Arthur, the fifth generation Fryer in the business.

The Milner family produced three generations of timepiece makers and jewellers in Pocklington, starting with Reuben on West Green/Railway Street from 1813-1840s, then carried on by son Charles, who was joined by his nephew Robert. When Charles died in 1873 Robert moved to Leeds as a watchmaker, though his life rapidly became ignominious. He was declared bankrupt, his wife divorced him for cruelty, adultery and desertion; and he left Yorkshire behind and emigrated to Philadelphia where he reinvented himself, starting a new family then a watchmaking and jewellery business in 1899. He ran his shop until 1920 when it was taken on by his son, another Reuben. The business continued in Philadelphia until the 1950s.

The longest serving Pocklington watch and clockmakers were clearly the Gilsons of Market Place – where Thomas started out in business in 1828 and remarkably carried on making watches up to his death, aged 85, in 1894, when his grandson, also Thomas, was assisting him and later became a watchmaker in Lancashire. Four of his sons followed in his footsteps as watchmakers, with youngest son, William, who made it to the age of 80, taking over from his father, with elder sons Richard in the trade in Halifax, Walter in Market Weighton, and John Thomas also in Pocklington. And the W Gilson & Son business in Market Place was continued into the mid-20th century by the third generation of Gilson watchmaking octogenarians, William’s son, Percy. The name was retained by subsequent owners of the business into the 21st century.

The other family watchmaking and jewellery business that spanned the 19th and 20thy centuries was Lundy & Son which survived in Railway Street into the 1960s. It was founded by Joseph Lundy, born in Pocklington but who learnt his trade as a watchmaker in Leeds in the 1860s. He then moved back home to set up business at the Oddfellows Arms, where his father was landlord. He moved into premises in Market Place and then Railway Street in the 1880s; and after he died in 1890 the business was continued as Lundy & Son by his widow, Susannah, and her Lamb children from her first marriage, including William Septimus Lamb, and Kendall nephew. The shop was still there with clocks in the window in the 1960s but was no longer in business.

A list of Pocklington watch and clock makers

Wall, John c1770
Watson, John 1770-c1820.
Walker, John – brass dial longcase clock c1770.
Truen , `J – painted dial longcase clock of c1790.
Northan/Northern, Richard c1800 (then Hull)
Calverley c1800.
Fryer, William c1808-1822; John 1810s-1831; Maria (John’s widow) 1830s-1840s; their son, Edward 1850s-1860s: his son, John Henry, 1860s. Premises in Waterloo Lane from 1820s then Market Place from 1840s.
Yates, John 1816-1818.
Milner, Reuben 1813-1840s; his son, Charles 1850s-1870s; nephew Robert; 1870s. Business started out in West Green but soon moved to Regent Street.
Gilson, Thomas 1828-1894; Richard 1860s (then in Scarborough, then Halifax to 1916), Walter 1860s-1870s (then in Market Weighton to 1924); John Thomas 1880s-1918; William 1880s-1933, Thomas 1890s (then Nelson, Lancs, to 1933), Percy 1890s-c1950. Same shop in Market Place for circa 200 years.
Jefferson, John 1830s (then Driffield) – Pocklington shop was in Market Place in 1834.
Newlove, George 1830s
Sheridan, Frederick – clock listed from the 1830s, but he died in Pocklington in 1843 aged just 27.
Hawgood, William 1840s-60s, clock and watch maker in Swinegate in 1851.
Winter, Henry 1870s.
Lundy, Joseph c1870-1890; Susannah  (Joseph’s widow) 1890-19; William L  amb (Susannah’s son) 1890-1912; Margaret Lamb (William’s wife) 1890-c1950. Shop in Railway Street.
Cotton, Richard, Market Place 1890s

Maggie Brooks in Canada contacted the history group to inform us she had an old Pocklington clock signed by John Watson. Watson appears in a directory for Pocklington in 1791.