House history
One building, six makers, and a set of standards that have outlived everyone who set them.
Ambrose Halloway rented the coach house in the spring of 1908 with a lathe he had carried on the tram and a commission he had not yet finished. The first Meridian No. 1 left the shop that autumn, and the money from it bought the second lathe. For its first twenty years the house made clock parts to pay the rent and orreries to pay for the drawings, and Ambrose was open about which one he loved.
The left-hand winding square dates from 1911 and the story is told properly in the journal. What the journal does not say is that Ambrose apologized to the collector in person, once a year, for the rest of his life, and the collector appeared to enjoy it more each time.
Edith Marlowe arrived in 1987 as an apprentice and spent her first year almost entirely on files. She became master in 2009 and has changed exactly one standard since: the visit room now has a kettle. The drawings, the stand, and the signing remain as they were.
118 years, one bench
The standards that never moved
Left-hand keys
Since 1911. A lock built from geometry, and a lesson in not hurrying a winding.
The test stand
Eighteen weeks, every instrument, logged in ink since 1954.
The signing
Inside the base ring, where only the owner will ever read it.