BBC’s description:
Brothers Roman and Maz have dedicated their lives to the cuckoo clock, but with no children to leave the collection to, Jasmine helps them decide what their options are as they are desperate to keep it together. Jasmine is speechless when she sees the collection – with 700 clocks, it’s widely acknowledged to be the largest collection in the UK, if not the world. They have even taken a lease on an old school just to house them.
URL to BBC 2: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qt7yg
Roman and Maz will be in our book that’ll be out later this year, ‘Dull Men of Great Britain’ by Ebury Publishing.
I visited them yesterday to take photos for the book. It’s an amazing collection. And what’s really nice is the detailed tour they give. The brothers are exceptionally knowledge about cuckoo clocks. Moreover, they are trained horologists; they trained in Manchester starting when the reached the ages of 15.
One would think a museum like this would be in the Black Forest. But, thanks to England’s tradition of collectaholics, it’s here in Cheshire, only 1.5 miles off the M6.
My favourite clock there is a two-bird clock, one bird does the ‘cu’ and the other bird does the ‘ckoo’:
I only wish I had visited then one week earlier — when clocks changed. I would have enjoyed helping change the clocks.
Leland Carlson
Winchester
