The Mantel Clock

This mantel clock belonged to George Albert Rogers, Gill's grandfather on her father's side. The story is that, at some point in his career, he was a travelling salesman and he swapped it for some of his wares. George Rogers went on to own a company called Phoenix, which had a factory in Stoke-on-Trent which made tiled fire surrounds, and he did very well out of it.

We had the clock at Lodge Road where it sat, very appropriately, on the marble mantelpiece in the front room. When it was there and, later, at Matenderere, we had the chimes working, and there was something very homely about their sound - except if you were trying to watch television or lying in bed listening to them on a long, sleepless night.

In our present small house the clock sits forlornly on top of the sideboard in the sitting room because it doesn't really fit anywhere else, so it's too out-of-reach to wind up. Even if we had it working I don't think we'd want it chiming: we'd never get any sleep.