Old Pub, New Name...

Out and about yesterday, I noticed that Flanagans Public house on Mottram Road has had a face lift and is now called "The Olde Town House".
This used to be the Moulders Arms Pub.

"The Moulders Arms was established shortly after the cotton famine in the 1860's.

It probably owed it's name to Benjamin Goodfellow's Hyde Iron Works which was situated across the road,  between Fernally Street and Lewis Street. The area is now Morrisons Supermarket.  Another but less likely origin of the name comes from the many brickfields which were situated around the area. The brickfields were owned by the Shepley Family of Lumn Farm. The workers used to mould clay into bricks".

(Excerpt from The History of the Pubs of Hyde and District by Paul Taylor)
Thanks Paul :)


The Olde Town House.


Flanagans

 
This was the general location of Benjamin Goodfellow's Iron Works.


We haven't yet managed to find a photo of the exterior of when it was the Moulders Arms but we are still looking ! If anyone reading this has one, please send it to us so we can put it on and complete the post.
Thank you :)

EDIT



A super Shot of the Moulders Arms .
Thanks Paul, much appreciated ! :D

John Shepley Clockmaker (2)

Hyde's Clock Maker

In December 2010 we did a post about John Shepley Clock Maker who was born and bred in Hyde. I have since then seen one of his clocks for sale on ebay and recently we have been contacted by Peter Wattenburg from the Netherlands. Peter says he saw our site and was pleased to see we had a story on John Shepley and he is interested in finding out more information. If you have any information to share on this matter I'd be very grateful, as of course would Peter.

Peter wrote the following:  I live in the Netherlands and I've collected English Long Case Clocks for more than 30 years now, As a matter of fact I have possibly the earliest known John Shepley clocks. It as a 10inch dial with the early spandrels and signed 'John Shepley Hyde'. The engraving is amateurish, so I believe John did this himself. I think on later clocks he hired a professional engraver or he learned engraving very fast. I would date this clock to around 1695 - 1700 at the time John was working in Hyde. I know of numbered clocks by him, this one dose not have a number so perhaps this was made prior to the time he started numbering?      

It looks like John tried his own engraving. Several styles of engraving are used on the dial centre. There is some sort of wriggle pattern inside the chaptering which lookes like the engraving style used by the early Quaker-clockmakers like Ogden and Gilkes family. There are some floral engraving and a nice bird. The half-hour markings on the chaptering are following the early pattern with the meeting arrow points. 

The original spandrels are also the earliest provincial cherub head spandrels.  The hand is original and has been well executed. The movement bears also the early features such as the finely ringed pillars, heavy plates and quite high in size. The clock did not use a chain but did run on ropes, the rope-spurs are still in place. All in all a nice interesting clockwork from the very early days of clock making in Hyde.

I'd like to thank Peter for sharing this 'gem' of a clock from Hyde past and hope it draws some attention from other who have such clocks and send in information concerning John Shepley or his clocks.  It would be nice to be able to feature a few more of his clocks on here.

John Shepley Clockmaker

We had an email recently asking if we had any information on a Hyde Clockmaker called John Shepley. To be honest I had not heard of him before... we know of a street named John Shepley Street but we think this relates to a later John Shepley a relation of the clockmaker. I'll quote Keith who contacted us abot John the clockmaker.

John Shepley was the first clockmaker in Hyde and little is known of his early life. He is a well respected maker and was probably working in Hyde from about 1690. The population in Hyde at that time was about 300 so he would struggle to make a living and sometime later moved to Stockport where his later clocks are signed either Johannes or John Shepley.We know that he died in 1749.

Single handed 30 hour clock by John Shepley of Stockport
Thanks to John Craik for the pictures and information
http://www.earlyclocks.co.uk/index.php

This clock, from a well respected early maker dates from about 1725 or slightly earlier. The dial measures 11 inches and is signed simply John Shepley without a placename. The typically bold northern half hour markers are floating, and the engraving around the datebox is beginning to extend outward, both indications of a slightly later date. The movement has four beautifully knopped and finned pillars, and an eight day calender wheel which is typical on 30 hour clocks from Manchester. (John Craik)

It would be interesting to find more information about Hyde's skilled clockmaker... we know he was from a well known and respected family, and it seems he could well have been born in the family home 'The Lumn' as it's documented that Richard Shepley purchased the Lumn estate from Sir Uryan Legh, of Adlington, in 1612 and it remained in the possession of the Shepleys, and his direct descendants, down to the John Shepley, who has the street named after him.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone reading this realises that the old clock handed down from granny is more than just a family heirloom, that is a bit to big for modern housing, but is also a part of Hyde's history dating back to a time when Hyde was just a small cluster of farms and folds and a certain clever chap called John Shepley was busy making these beautiful time-pieces.

Family home of the Shepleys