Where do you go to buy a watch or clock of a particular type, or a find business specialising in timepiece restoration? Or, for enthusiasts, where can you find a museum to learn more about the subject of clocks and watches through the ages?

The answers to these and many more questions are to be found in the 350 pages of the Horological Directory 2011, which has just been published by Richard and Julia Snelling of Roost Publications.

Mr Snelling’s own business is among those listed in its pages — Antique Clock Restoration has been established in Didcot since 1993.

This directory has been a mammoth work of research and updates earlier editions published by Mr and Mrs Snelling in 1996, 1998 and 2001.

Mr Snelling explained: “We had intended to call it a day, but as Julia had maintained the database every month for 15 years, it seemed a terrible waste not to do one more issue.

“It has involved a year’s work, and the writing of about 2,000 letters in the process of checking details.”

He describes the directory as a kind of horological Yellow Pages for anybody in the business of clocks or watches.

He said: “All the information they can possibly need is in there.”

The entry for Antique Clock Restoration describes it as one dealing in ‘professional repair and restoration to antique and other clocks’.

The Swiss have always been renowned for their clock and watchmaking skills and Mr Snelling himself has that background, as his maternal grandfather, Herman Roost, was a watchmaker.

He came to this country with his family just before World War I, in the early months of 1914.

And it was a Swiss clock which led to Mr Snelling setting out on the same horological path to develop his interest and acquire the same skills.

He said: “It all started with a clock which had been a wedding present to me and my wife.

“I spent 30 years in the RAF and, with all our moving around, and with normal family life, the clock was in need of some attention.

“When I wanted to have it repaired, I could not find anybody to take it on, so I thought, if nobody else will do this, I’ll have a go myself.”

With his horological heritage and his own professional background as a mechanical engineer in the RAF, it was natural he should turn to horology, initially as an amateur, for the next 20 years.

While still in the RAF he went to work in a clock shop in Cardiff on Saturdays and followed a correspondence course with the British Horological Institute.

“That’s how I began to learn, and when I retired from the RAF I went into clock-repairing as a business,” he said.

Now, in his Didcot workshop, he specialises in clocks, but can send watches to a contact in Lincolnshire.

Grandfather, grandmother, carriage and bracket clocks — all of which tend to become regarded as family heirlooms — come into the workshop.

“I prefer the older clocks. They are nicer to work on, and more interesting, but I also repair modern ones if people bring them in.” said Mr Snelling.

Bracket clocks are, as the name suggests, those fixed to a bracket on a wall. Recent projects have included a Fusee, British-made and more than 100 years old.

Many bracket clocks were made in France and there is a large collection at Blenheim Palace, for example.

Mr Snelling is currently working on two carriage clocks. As well as glass on all four sides, they have a glass window on top, and a carrying handle. He explains that because of the movement when the clock is carried they have a watch-type platform escapement rather than a pendulum.

Of the grandfather clocks, he has recently worked on two contrasting examples: one around 150 years old, and one of modern manufacture.

Grandfather clocks may be up to six feet tall, while the less common grandmothers are smaller, reaching only about four-and-a-half feet.

Then there are the regulator clocks, which, before the days of quartz or radio-controlled clocks, were used by the clock-maker or repairer to regulate the time on those on which he was working.

Mr Snelling said: “They would live in the workshop and were as accurate as it is possible for a mechanical clock to be.”

Mr Snelling’s services are in demand, and he has a waiting list of up to three months. But once in the workshop, clocks will not normally have to stay for more than two or three weeks. The final week is when the clock is on test.

While replacement parts for a mainspring, that most commonly in need or replacement, are available from horological suppliers, many others are not. Then it may be a case of these parts having to be made in the workshop, requiring “precise and delicate work,” said Mr Snelling.

Despite this, he has seen interest in clocks grow significantly in recent years.

He said: “There was a time in the 1950s when people used to throw grandfather clocks on the bonfire.

“But there has been a great change, and people have come to realise they are valuable antiques.”

n The Horological Directory 2011 costs £15, plus £1.75 postage, from the website www.horologicaldirectory2011.co.uk

Name: Antique Clock Restoration Established: 1993 Managing director: Richard Snelling Number of staff: One Annual turnover: Confidential

Contact: 01235 816581 E-mail: www.rfssnelling@sky.com