Last Meeting
Meeting on Saturday 5th June at The Museum and Art Gallery, John Frost Square, Newport.
Once again the turnout was good with the majority of members present.
Our first speaker was Mr Paul Busby, a local historian and expert on the Morgan family of Tredegar House. Paul gave a virtuoso performance, talking most fluently and entertainingly about Charles Octavius Swinnerton Morgan, whose many and varied interests and obsessions included a passion for collecting antique clocks of the finest quality and importance: 'his heart doesn't beat, it goes tick tock'. At his home The Friars (in Newport) he amassed a horological treasure trove , including many rare specimens such as the Habrecht clock now in the British Museum. Also the famous golden galleon clock, which was a fantastic automaton which 'sailed' the length of the dining table.
Victoria Newton-Davies (Curator, Archaeology) and Rachel Anderton (Curator, Social History) then escorted us in groups round the museum galleries and stores, pointing out some of the specimens of special interest, incuding of course the horological items. Among her favourite items are a small bronze animal head with horns and an elongated snout (1st Century BC/AD), a sculptured head of a man in the Celtic style and a Romano-British statuette, or mother goddess in sand-stone. Both the stone figures were found at CaewentThese included a tidal dial clock by Thomas Jones of Newport, showing high water at Newport Bridge; three longcase clocks by Charles Vaughan of Pontypool, and one by William Latch of Newport; an ornate mantel clock in Bath stone; a superb grandmother clock with veneered dial manufactured at the Brynmawr Furniture Factory in the 1930s; and the medieval foliot of a turret clock from Llanthony Priory, now on dislay in the museum.
After lunch, Dr Bill Linnard gave a talk about the exciting discovery of the foliot of a medieval turret clock unearthed at an archaeological dig at Llanthony Priory, and first identified as such by the late Dr John Owen (a founder member of our Society). This may well be the remains of the very clock that formed the subject of the famous poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym written in the second half of the fourteenth century. A detailed account of the foliot and discussion of its significance will be published in the next issue of Antiquarian Horology (2004, June, pp 1-5). The pictures show the foliot, now in three pieces, and two stone weights which may have been counter-weights from the clock.
Finally, Victoria Newton-Davies gave a fascinating talk on the discovery of the medieval (Portuguese?) ship at Newport, and the associated archaeological finds - the ship itself, fixtures and fittings, cargo, personal items and warfare items. We concentrated on the remains of a rare survival: a medieval hour-glass (rather like an egg-timer, of cloudy milky potash glass), and the results of ongoing research on this are eagerly awaited.
We were also invited to view the exhibition of art on display in The Museum: Creating a Splash by The St. Ives Society of Artists.
All pictures were taken with the kind permission of the Newport City Council Museums and Heritage Service.
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