Thomas Barry worked out of 125 Bradshawgate and is listed as trading trading between 1816 and when he died in 1829.
Thomas Barry produced a number of painted face long case clocks and often used a crescent shaped moon phase window, or other complex designs, which isn’t surprising when you consider the works of his father. Many of his later clocks survive.
Bolton’s Thomas was the Son of the famous Ormskirk Clock maker also a Thomas Barry. who had fastidiously worked on a new type of mechanism that was built with such precision, it miraculously seemed to know where the moon was in the sky and when Easter Sunday would fall in any given year! The astronomical clock was so unique and so sought after once it was announced to the clock buying population of Lancashire, that it was raffled at Mr Forshaw’s Hotel, Liverpool, for 1 guinea a ticket in 1787 with only 150 tickets available. This clock, deemed a supreme example of English Clock Making, is in the Walker Museum, Liverpool, having been bought by the museum with Heritage Lottery funding and donations from the National Arts Collections Fund for £250,000.
Examples of clocks by Bolton’s Thomas Barry are shown below.
It appears by 1833 Bolton’s Thomas Barry was following his fathers footsteps, here from the Coventry Herald & Free Press, 18th October 1833, are details of a wonderful Bolton made Astronomical clock…
If only such a wonderful item could turn up today!
A mahogany 8 day tall clock by Thomas Barry, scrolled bonnet containing an unusual square dial with crescent shaped moon phase window, waist with arched door with applied moulded edges, flanked by inset columns, on a panelled base on OG feet.
A fine Mahogany long case clock , with a fine feathered door, inlaid satinwood, the hood with fluted columns Mid 19th C. 8 day striking movement by T Barry 1820. The clock was sold from Hillside in Bolton 26 – 27th February 1969.
The house was built in the mid 19th Century and one of the first occupants was William Lever later to become Lord Leverhulme.
The house then passed on to William Tillotson the founder of the Bolton Evening News.
He was also the agent for several authors including Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and H G Wells.
His son Fred and his Wife Dorothy were the last occupants, his wife finally left by 1969.
Mahogany longcase clock, the hood with swan neck pediment and fluted columns, trunk with lancet door, and on ogee bracket feet, 14” arched painted dial with moon phase, Roman chapter ring, subsidiary seconds and date dials, signed Barry, Bolton, eight-day movement, striking on a bell.
