private industry clocks founded 1740 headquarters rottingdean brighton east sussex england products clocks website www.thwaites reed.co.uk clock from thwaites & reed 1817 now in hessenpark germany thwaites & reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world . geoffrey buggins mbe the last of the original family clockmakers saw drawings of thwaites clocks dating back to 1610 . these drawings and other early records prior to 1780 went missing but other records from that date are on loan to the london metropolitan archives where the public have access . for 30 years it maintained all the clocks at the palace of westminster including the great clock . other than thwaites & reed associated tradenames are aynsworth thwaites john thwaites and was trade supplier of movements to many well known historic clockmakers including dutton dwerrihouse ellicott and vulliamy and in more recent times well known retailers including the franklin mint asprey and garrards . during its ownership by fw elliott ltd it also made movements under the elliott brand . contents 1 history 2 clocks 3 external links 4 footnotes 5 references history edit john thwaites was a clockmaker at the beginning of the 17th century and from this extended family aynsworth thwaites founded the business now known as thwaites & reed in rosoman street clerkenwell london in 1740 1 and continued there until 1780 . thereafter the firm traded from bowling green lane . the company s earliest recorded commission and still in use was a turret clock for horseguards parade made in 1740 but not finished until 1768 and a domestic long clock about 1770 for the british east india company . the complexity of the horseguards clock is the result of many previous years clockmaking experience but older work has not been identified . aynsworth was succeeded by john thwaites who was head of the firm from 1780 to 1816 1 and master of the clockmakers company in 1815 1819 and 1820 . 2 in 1816 thwaites partnered with george jeremiah reed and the firm became thwaites & reed . john thwaite remained at the firm s head until 1842 . 1 the firm of john moore was acquired in 1899 . in 1969 the family firm brought in outsiders to manage its business culminating in the british government acquiring control of thwaites & reed . in 1978 it was acquired from the government by fw elliott ltd who owned thwaites & reed limited until it was sold in 1991 to melvyn lee . the historic documents on loan to the london metropolitan archives ref ms 6788 6808 cover the periods from 1780 to 1955 . dunstable town council archives had a catalogue of turret clocks made up to 1878 and there is a later incomplete list showing the date of supply and purchasers of turret clocks to 1902 . up to 1900 2978 domestic clocks were made with serial numbers in chronological order . 3 other clocks were not listed but from 1972 to 1980 10 types of replica clocks with serial numbers from 1 to 1000 were made as a limited editions . clocks edit thwaites clock in simon s town south africa still in full working order clock at horseguards parade 1756 tower clock at st. michael s church in charleston sc 1764 east india company india 1770 1 the royal clock in the queen victoria building in sydney australia . bracken house clock with zodiac calendar and churchill s face emblazoned on it 1955 bracken house former home of the financial times royal small arms clock tower 4 c 1783 clock at all saints church wokingham 1817 5 st. john s church parramatta nsw australia clock in north tower 1821 holy trinity old church margate 1845 6 the first clock of the torre malakoff recife pernambuco brazil 1854 . st. george tabernacle st. george utah 7 prince albert memorial clocktower hastings gothic style 1864 8 bow bells at st mary le bow electric clock mechanism 1961 9 fortnum & mason of piccadilly with automata jacks of the founders fortnum & mason in 19th century costumes . 1964 mast house clock simon s town naval base south africa 1816 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to thwaites & reed . official website footnotes edit a b c d clock and watch making british history online retrieved 2006 12 19 . list of masters worshipful company of clockmakers retrieved 2007 05 21 . buggins gte ; turner aj the context of production identification and dating of clocks by a. and j. thwaites royal small arms island centre accessed 2006 12 19 all saints church wokingham accessed 2006 12 19 holy trinity old church accessed 2006 12 19 st. george tabernacle accessed 2006 12 19 prince albert memorial clocktower hastings choice accessed 2006 12 19 st mary le bow accessed 2006 12 19 references edit industries clock and watch making a history of the county of middlesex 2 general ; ashford east bedfont with hatton feltham hampton with hampton wick hanworth laleham littleton 1911 pp. 158 65 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title thwaites % 26 reed & oldid 727383080 categories 1740 establishments in englandcompanies established in 1740clockmakerscompanies based in east sussexcompanies established in the 18th centuryhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 28 june 2016 at 16 35 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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