Deacon’s Jewellers Old Town Swindon and the regulator clock
It’s struck me often that Swindon’s Old Town has, within a few yards of one another, three long-standing and still family-owned businesses. That must be somewhat unusual surely? On Newport Street there’s Gilbert’s. On the corner of Bath Road and Devizes Rd there’s Blaylocks and on Wood Street of course we have Deacon & Son (Swindon) Ltd. The business was founded, by George Deacon, in 1848 as jewellers, watch and clock makers. It remains a family-run business that’s now in its sixth generation.
That is quite remarkable for sure. But on its own, a ‘so what’ is fair enough – after all, they can’t be the only long-standing family jewellery business in the land can they? At least I wouldn’t imagine so.
So what makes this business stand out?
But there’s something else about this business that makes it stand-out – and that’s its relationship with the story of New Swindon. Because there’s no doubt at all that the reason Deacon’s is such a well-known Swindon business, is the coming of the Great Western Railway.
An ambitious, 26-year-old George Deacon had the vision to see the need for time-keeping in a fast-growing town – one that arguably was the crucible of the industrial revolution. So – with an eye on the main chance, young George Deacon moved from his home town of Westbury to Swindon.
The business expanded and won one of the timing contracts for the Great Western Railway on the Paddington to Swansea line from the early 1850s to 1893.
The regulator clock
Around 1865, Deacon & Son Ltd made the Regulator Clock that stands to this day in the jewellery, clock and watch department of the shop. Before radio and the telephone gave universally available time, local means were designed to maintain accurate time-keeping. And this tended to be done by means of a regulator clock.
The dead-beat escapement in this movement causes less friction and dampens vibration, giving greater accuracy. The self-regulating mercury pendulum, changes volume equally with the changes in temperatureand thus keeps the clock on a constant steady beat giving better time keeping.
Deacon’s workshops made extensive use of the regulator clock for clock timing and regulation for many years. But then, in 2011, radio-controlled timing came from the nuclear caesium clock at the National Physics lab in Rugby.
So – were it not for the coming of the Great Western Railway, Deacon’s as we know it may well not exist at all.
There’s more detail to the history of Deacon’s on their website – find it here https://www.deacons-jewellers.com/pages/history
These boots are made for walking
Of course, Deacon’s is not the only long-standing, family-owned business in Old Town. I’m really rather fond of Blaylock’s – the shoe shop on the corner of Bath Road and Devizes Rd.
Blaylock’s is what I call a ‘proper’ shoe shop – though you’d need to be of a certain again to even know what I mean by that. And, what I mean by that is, that the shoes are stacked in boxes on shelves in the shop itself. Exactly as I remember shoe shops!
There’s no going out the back somewhere with an iPad and a headset on. Pfft. It’s friendly service and I love it. Not quite as old as Deacon’s they’ve been around for somewhere in the region of 100 years. Still, to my knowledge, this is a family-run business and an independent shoe shop. Fabulous.
Gilberts
Having bought your super comfy carpet slippers in Blaylocks – where better for your actual carpet than Gilbert’s on Newport Street, Gilbert’s have been in Old Town since 1866 so must have furnished a few Swindon homes in the intervening 152 years. What an astonishing thought.
