AS the clocks go back, one of the country’s few remaining clockmakers is urging everyone to stop the hands of time this weekend.

Rob Snowdon practises the increasingly rare craft of clock-making from premises in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire.

His working week often takes him from painstakingly precise work on miniature carriage clocks to spending time working on a church clock tower.

But as the nation prepares to turn the clocks back an hour on Sunday, October 25, Rob is advising people not to wind back the hands of time, but stop the pendulum for an hour.

Grabbing the minute hand of a clock and winding it back can damage the mechanical workings, said the craftsman.

“It’s not good, especially on a striking clock,” he said.

“Everything is designed to work in a clockwise motion. As soon as people start turning it anti-clockwise it does all kinds of damage. It’s amazing how busy my phone gets this time of year.

"Just stop the pendulum from swinging and wait an hour, or even two hours and then put the hands forward.”

Rob, 35, who lives in Rillington near Malton, took up his trade six years ago after initially working as a car mechanic.

His father, David, had worked as a mechanic until he broke his back. As he was in a wheelchair he began repairing clocks to pass the time, but the hobby quickly escalated to a thriving business.

Rob often worked with him on repairs and restorations, but after 15 years as a mechanic, he decided to join his father in the family business, based behind his mother’s gift shop, Something Special, in Kirkbymoorside.

While serving out his notice, ready to join the business, his father passed away unexpectedly and Rob was left to take on the business alone.

He settled quickly into the business and has an 18-months waiting list for his repairs. He says there are very few clockmakers left in the UK now, as there is not an obvious route into the trade, or of studying clock making.

A member of the British Watch and Clockmakers Guild, along with the British Horological Institute, Rob was recently accepted in the Guild of Master Craftsmen.

He says he still finds himself amazed at the craftsmanship involved in old clocks.

“I’ve just recently restored and sold a grandfather clock made in Kirkbymoorside in 1710 and it’s still there ticking away, keeping the time.

“The guy that sat down in his workshop and made this thing all those years ago by candle-light with primitive tools – it’s that that interests me, the history.

“What have those clocks seen all these years and who has wound them up? They’ve been through wars and all kinds of history. We’re in a throw-away society where everything is made as cheaply as possible to do a purpose for so long.

“Clocks are much more than pieces of furniture, people get so attached to them.”