Tuesday, March 3, 2009

New Zealand's First Clock - Manners Street, 1867



Freeman's Clockmaking store, 16 Manners Street, Wellington, chromolitho. circa 1895, with the first clock made in New Zealand.

New Zealand's first clock was manufactured on Manners Street, Wellington, and hung from the store frontage of a clock & watchmaker for many decades until 1935. The clock was made by Charles Campbell in 1867. The iron work for the clock was done by a Manners Street foundry.

The clock is shown on the store frontage of H J Freeman, in the chromolithographic print of 1895, located at 16 Manners Street. The street number seems to conflict with another source that suggests it was at 13 Manners Street. When the building was demolished in 1935, the clock was removed.

Does anyone know what happened to the clock?

1 comment:

Jayne said...

That's a gorgeous print :)
Discrepancy with street numbers could be something simple like a typo or when local authorities rearrange street numbers (which has happened in our suburb more times than we've had hot dinners!).
Hope the clock is still intact somewhere.