Title: Long case clock

Height: 196 cm
Date: c.1790
Made by James Hollingshead, Market Place, Olney
Provenance: gift Mr Simmons, 1964.
Museum No: OLNCN:763

James Hollingshead was a clock and watchmaker in Olney, and there was also a George Hollingshead.

This is typical of the dimensions of regional long case clocks: they were rarely more than two metres in height, to fit in with low farmhouse ceilings. Long case or 'grandfather' clocks began to appear in country homes from the mid-18th century onwards. They remained fashionable from the late 18th and through much of the 19th century in the regions, although they had fallen out of fashion in London by the beginning of the 19th century.

During the late 18th and 19th centuries most country towns such as Olney would have had clockmakers. However, from the late 19th century their numbers rapidly diminished as it became common to acquire the mechanism for the clock from a central warehouse and have the case made by a local cabinetmaker.