Longcase Grandfather Clock by John Barraclough of Haworth c1830

8th May 2020

We recently managed to find a very rare oak and mahogany longcase clock handmade by John Barraclough of Haworth. The clock is most likely to have been made around 1830  (10 years before Mulberry Cottage was built). 

John Barraclough (1773-1835) was a very important and well-known clock maker in Haworth, Yorkshire, living and working on Haworth Main Street at the time of the Brontës. His home was the building which is now The Hawthorn and two more examples of his clocks can be found there. There is also a John Barraclough clock in the Parsonage which was made for Patrick Brontë. 

A portrait of the clockmaker has been attributed to Branwell Bronte, who may have been acquainted with Barraclough through the Haworth Masonic Lodge.

Charlotte Brontë even used the name Moses Barraclough in ‘Shirley’.

John Barraclough died in 1835 and is buried at St Michael and All Angels churchyard in Haworth.

The clock is believed to have been made for the ‘The Rule Britannia’ public house at Upper Ponden, not far from Haworth. ‘The Rule Britannia’ failed to have their licence renewed in 1869 and was forced to close.  The clock was found for sale in Northampton in 2019 having been in the same family for three generations