This belonged to John Waddington of Clifford, Yorks, who was born in 1745, and died in Feb. 1819. It came to Bosworth with Mrs. Hubbard (Sarah 1795 - 1870, John Waddington’s daughter) and afterwards, when on our marriage she returned to Leicester, the clock was left with her son. She used to tell of this clock that her father valued it so much that he used to say that his children should never part with it “unless it was for bread.”

At Bosworth it used to stand on the first-floor landing, near the drawing room door; and on this landing I once found Arthur (Hubbard) sitting when he was three or four years old. I asked him what he was doing: “Listening to the clock.”

“And what does the clock say?”

“It keeps on saying: ‘Some day ……. Some day ……...’ ”

When in 1870 we went to live with my mother at 16, Kensington Square, no situation could be found high enough for it. So its legs which were rather worm eaten, were cut off and it lived in the kitchen. At Ladbroke Terrace it was on the first-floor landing until the putting up of a large linen closet obliged us to move it downstairs.

On coming up at the beginning of 1868 from Leicestershire to Pembroke Gardens, its works got disarranged, and it paid three visits to two watchmakers. They did not succeed in putting it to rights for more than a few weeks at a time; and its rough country construction was just as strange to me as any more modern make, - and not more so, - I took it to pieces – and after several days of experimental work at it, I succeeded in getting it into good working order.

Although the drawing room clock, which I have loved to listen to all my life, is the more valuable of the two, yet Arthur’s early associations with the tall Waddington clock will very likely make him choose this.

Emma EVANS 1828 – 1905 married John Waddington HUBBARD 1823 – 1832.

He was son of Samuel HUBBARD 1791 - 1832 who married Sarah WADDINGTON 1795 – 1870.

Arthur John Hubbard, the little boy who listened to the clock, did indeed take possession of the clock. In time it passed down to his son, John Waddington Hubbard the oldest child and in turn to John Waddington Phillips Hubbard the oldest child in his generation. It is now, 2021, with Sarah Hubbard the oldest in the following generation.

I can count the clock has having passed down at least eight generations. JFH 2021

There is a brass plate in the clock put in by Arthur John Hubbard in 1906 naming the owners as below. Names in italics, are the owners since the brass plate was made.

John Waddington 1745 – 1819

Sarah Hubbard, daughter of the above 1795 - 1870

John Waddington Hubbard, son of the above 1823 – 1871

Emma Hubbard, widow of the above 1828 – 1905

Arthur John Hubbard, son of the above John Waddington and Emma 1856 – 1935

John Waddington Hubbard, son of the above 1896 – 1988

All the habitats of our branch of the family have been governed for generations by a huge Grandfather clock, which has been in the family for six or possibly seven generations. It is an enormous and most beautiful specimen of inlaid mahogany and rosewood, dating well back into the eighteenth century, and unusually tall.

The first consideration when moving into a new house is invariably “Will the clock get in?” Many houses, otherwise suitable, have had to be turned down, simply because the ceilings were not high enough to accommodate the clock. It has always come down to the eldest son (sic) and the legend attached to it is that it must never be sold “except for bread.” Generations of the family have looked at its dignified face and listened to its solemn tick and quarterly chimes. It is a perfect timekeeper and is now in Jack’s possession. As he is a clergyman he has never been troubled about accommodation for the clock, as the average rectory is eminently suitable to it, however unsuitable it may otherwise be in these servant-less days. The clock was a very real problem to Father, though he loved it as devotedly as if it had been a living thing. It was entirely due to the clock that Father and Mother decided upon that particular house. (Hill House, Pleasant Stile, Littledean. JFH)

After Father gave up his practice, he and Mother went about together for weeks viewing possible houses in various parts of England, and the first thing that Father did on entering any house was to ascertain the height of the ceilings, always with the clock in mind.

The maker of the Waddington clock was William Sykes of Leeds. He was well known for his longcase clocks.

Description of a similar clock (found online) - Case Clock by William Sykes of Holbeck (Leeds, West Yorkshire, 1805-1883), Chippendale style, central carved finial (with bird carrying olive branch) with arched bonnet, Corinthian style full round columns flanking a tombstone door, having a brass and etched silver dial, painted landscape in arch above, having a eight day spring driven brass time and strike movement with chimes, 82" x 22" x 12". (Just over two metres tall)

A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are commonly 1.8–2.4 metres (6–8 feet) tall with an enclosed pendulum and weights suspended by either cables or chains which have to be calibrated occasionally to keep the proper time. The case often features elaborately carved ornamentation on the hood (or bonnet), which surrounds and frames the dial, or clock face. The English clockmaker William Clement is credited with the development of this form in 1670. Until the early 20th century, pendulum clocks were the world's most accurate timekeeping technology, and longcase clocks, due to their superior accuracy, served as time standards for households and businesses. Today they are kept mainly for their decorative and antique value, having been widely replaced by both analogue and digital timekeeping.