2015 September meeting

The Beresford Hutchinson Memorial Lecture

Conservation of the Pyke Organ Clock for Temple Newsam

Malcolm Archer FBHI

The Pyke Organ Clock

Our speaker this month is Malcolm Archer FBHI who since 2007 has been working as a self-employed clockmaker based near Chichester.

He is also employed as one of the Associate Tutors on the Clocks programme at West Dean College, providing tutoring as well as specialised training in small work such as carriage clocks.

Following his initial horological training at Hackney College in 1998 Malcolm went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Conservation/ Restoration of Antique Clocks at West Dean College obtaining a pass with distinction.
The Pyke Clock Project headed up by Malcolm is the result of a collaboration between Leeds Temple Newsam House and West Dean College.

George Pyke, a clockmaker and organ builder, working in eighteenth century London. Along with his father John Pyke, George was an associate of the eminent English clockmaker Charles Clay.

Transported to West Dean in early February 2014, the clock, circa 1765, consists of a near eight-foot-high ebonised case containing the clock movement, automaton dial and barrel organ with pipes in wood and metal. The music is played from the large rotating wooden barrel with several thousand individual pins and bridges, each activating a note.

Restoration involved work on the clock movement, automaton dial and barrel organ mechanism together with the ebonised case.

Now working and back at Temple Newsam tonight’s talk is the story of the conservation of this most remarkable clock.

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