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ripple in fact: clockmaking was their business and the trade they introduced was continued
in Alcester right into the 20th century by a line of clock and watch families.
Richard Houton (sometimes 'Houghton') was born in Salford Priors in 1696 and probably learned his craft from Nicholas Paris of Warwick. He married into the Woodful family of Oversley and set up a foundry there on Oversley Green. Crossing the Arrow from Alcester, the house is the first on the right. Richard Houton and son (also Richard) maintained the church clocks at Salford and Alcester and perhaps elsewhere: Richard Snr.'s long-case clocks keep coming to light in various parts of England, as do those of the Alcester makers who kept the craft going. The Lower Arrow Valley is not generally regarded as an industrialised area but the crafts which did spring up were more the result of individual innovators than of other factors; the Lea family of Studley for needles and the Houtons of Oversley for clocks illustrate the point. Such people caused more ripples than they knew at the time. |
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