Clock's ticking

The skills shortage in the clock-making businesses is less talked-about than in other time-honoured trades like plumbing, engineering, welding, bricklaying and carpentry, but it's a very real problem which is set to get worse.

While more and more young people head to university and then go into jobs in IT or recruitment - or just drift between office temping roles because they don't know what career to choose - the number of skilled tradespeople continues to dwindle.

The danger is that unless more young people train for a vocation now, the skills of the country's master tradesmen and women could soon be lost forever.

Mark Taylor has been making and restoring clocks for 17 years at his shop, M C Taylor, in Christchurch Road, Pokesdown.

He says he is crying out for a trainee clockmaker to help ease his extremely heavy workload, but no one seems interested.

"This must be one of the most grossly understaffed trades going. We've given up advertising for staff. We've offered a £30,000 a year salary but no one is prepared to invest time and effort and sweat into learning."

He adds: "Everyone reckons they can do this without any training but they can't. We're the only properly qualified horologists in this area, and 47 per cent of our work each year is corrective work from other people who advertise in Yellow Pages as clock repairers - they also fix your telly and lawnmower."

Shop manager Maggie Steele says: "We're almost dead, never mind dying. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty anymore - everyone wants to have computers and a company car.

"But if young people today looked to the future and trained with a clockmaker before they all retire, they would have such a wonderful career ahead of them because there are so many people with collections of antique clocks who spend time and money maintaining them."

Mark adds: "It's getting to the stage now where it's like plumbers - someone coming into this trade now who wants to work hard and learn will have a job for life because the demand is greater than the supply. The way things are going, give it another 10 to 15 years and they'll be able to charge what they like, too."

People travel from Scotland, London, and even Germany and Switzerland to have their clocks restored at Mark's shop, which has been a clock-making business since 1949.

Mark, 44, says: "We do everything here - dials and casework can be restored, and we make all our own parts, including wheels. If it's mechanical we do it, whether it's a clock, a barometer, an automata or a music box.

"There's probably only a handful of clockmakers in the UK now who can take any clock, make whatever it needs and guarantee it as good as brand new, even if it's 300 years old.

"Our waiting list is pretty long - if it's a fairly straightforward service it'll be a month or two, but for more complicated restoration work the wait is about two years. I daren't advertise because we can't cope with the workload we've got now."

Alistair Redfern joined Mark as an apprentice at the age of 15. Now aged 32, he believes he's one of the youngest horologists in the country.

He says: "My mum brought me into the shop to see if there was any Saturday work and it just kicked off from there.

"I think this is an excellent trade for young people to go into because it's nice to wake up in the morning and come in and do something you enjoy. It's not a mundane job at all because I'm always doing something different."

Mark adds: "When I retire perhaps Alistair will take on the business, because if we give up it will die with us. It's not even a business we can sell."

Geoff Purkiss learnt the art of producing stained glass windows from his father, who worked as a stained glass and leaded light window maker in Bournemouth and Poole from the 1920s right up until the 1970s.

When Geoff, 57, from Poole, gave up being a car mechanic 10 years ago, he decided to put the knowledge he'd gleaned from his dad into practice and set up his own windows business.

He specialises in restoring stained glass and leaded light windows in listed and old buildings - a job that many stained glass window makers today aren't skilled enough to do.

"Most of my work is Edwardian and Victorian front doors because the slamming over the years makes the lead stretch and causes cracks. The way I work is by taking the whole panel out, putting in a glass or plywood replacement and then bringing the panel back to my workshop for repair.

"All the small glass manufacturers have packed up these days so it's difficult to get the right match when you're doing a restoration job, but luckily I've still got lots of my dad's old stock so I can usually find something suitable.

"There probably aren't many people around today who can restore a whole glass panel themselves. Lots of stained glass companies mainly do stick-on 'stained glass' for the front doors of new properties."

Jim Rainer, from New Milton, is a semi-retired bricklayer and senior site manager, who now specialises in building chimneys.

He says: "There are aspects of the trade that are dying, and the art of building fireplaces is one of them. There was a large slump in the 1950s when we stopped building chimneys and used gas flues, and this led to a dearth of expertise needed to build chimneys. It's coming back but it's still a problem."

Jim, 70, believes the government must set up proper training centres for school leavers who want to go into the building trade.

"We used to have a proper apprenticeship scheme in this country but that's died a death. If you want to go into the trade now you have to rely on the goodwill of a sub-contractor coming along and giving you a start."

Brian Earwicker, also from New Milton, has been a chimney sweep for more than 50 years, and although he's still in fairly good company, he says there are few sweeps today who are fully qualified.

"This isn't a dying trade, but the trouble is the chap I went out and trained with was a master sweep and there aren't many as good as him about at all. People think they're on to a good thing, so they have a go, but they don't have any qualifications.

"Before all these old tradesmen go they ought to get them in the classroom to show people how to do it.

"The day of the manual worker has gone, though - everybody just wants to sit in front of a computer."

Professions that are achieving new heights

SOME age-old trades that are often perceived as dying out are actually witnessing a revival.

A trend towards building new houses with thatched roofs has created plenty of work for thatchers, while an increase in horse ownership in Britain has led to a demand for more farriers.

Simon Denney, from Christchurch, started thatching when he left school 21 years ago.

"I'd say thatching was becoming a dying trade, but now, with all the new thatched houses, it's up-and-coming. Lots of people who haven't got thatched houses are having garden rooms and garden offices with thatched roofs too - I've done lots of those around Canford Cliffs.

"There are young people going into thatching - I've just taken on a 17-year-old and I've got one who started with me when he was 17 and he's been thatching for six years."

Simon, 38, believes thatch has increased in popularity largely because new fire regulations have improved safety.

He explains: "There's a standard for safety for thatched roofs called the Dorset Model, which means that if it's a new building we have to put fire-board all over the roof so you've got a fire barrier. There are lots of other safety precautions too, like heights of chimneys.

"Probably 35 to 40 per cent of our work is new buildings, while the rest is conservation work. I think it's going to end up as quite a healthy industry, and it's a nice English tradition to uphold."

Tom Sampson, 21, followed his dad Robert, 48, into the farrier business and now the pair work together from their farm in Somerley, near Ringwood.

Although becoming a farrier involves a rigorous four-and-a-half-years' training, Tom says there's no shortage of young people wanting to enter the profession.

"At the colleges there's normally 40 applicants for each intake and only 35 of those will qualify, so there's a lot of young people wanting to do it.

"I went into it because it's a good trade and it's a family tradition - my grandfather was a farrier too.

"There's an awful lot of horses around and farriers become seriously busy."

Lee Francis trained as a farrier in the Household Cavalry 14 years ago, and now trades under the name of Hoofhearted in Ferndown.

Lee, 39, says: "In the past 10 years the number of farriers in the UK has increased by 300 and there are more horses in the UK than at any other time since the First World War.

"This is certainly a profession that young men seem to be going into now. There are 1,300 farriers nationwide and 42 of those are in Dorset."

Lee has 250 horses on his books, although he doesn't travel much further than within a 12-mile radius.

He explains: "Farriers tend to have a regular clientele and each horse is shod every six to eight weeks. It's very hard work - very tough on your back and legs - but it's a good profession to be in and you build up a very good rapport with your clients."

Factfile

Research published in The Times Good University Guide earlier this year found that architecture, civil engineering and building graduates are much more likely to find employment than those graduating from IT and business-related degrees.

A survey of parents in the South West found that half of those questioned would prefer their children to opt for job-related training rather than academic study which would saddle them with debt.

Parents questioned in the survey said they would rather their children picked the building trade over teaching, the police force, farming, retailing, journalism or catering - and would far prefer them choosing building work than becoming estate agents.

Eighty-two per cent of building graduates find employment within six months of leaving university.

According to official figures from the Federation of Master Builders, three-quarters of builders are experiencing difficulties recruiting employees and sub-contracted labour. Builders belonging to the Federation of Master Builders say bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers and plasterers are the most difficult to find.