The watchmaker's apprentice: How the endangered craft of watchmaking is thriving in Midhurst

Midhurst apprentice Patrick Woodward has won the British Horological Institute Bronze Medal, a prize issued to the best apprentice watchmaker in the United Kingdom.

Five years ago, after reading a short article about J E Allnutt & Son’s previous success in training a watchmaker, he approached Geoff Allnutt regarding the possibility of being taken on as an apprentice.

Geoff saw great potential in Patrick and offered him a full-time apprenticeship in watchmaking in April 2018.

The process of training an apprentice is a long-term commitment for any employer, especially for a small business, Geoff said.

He approached several charities and educational trusts to secure the funding for full time training, watchmaking tools and the courses which Patrick would have to complete through the British Horological Institute.

Following intensive applications and interviews Patrick was accepted for sponsorship by the prestigious George Daniels Educational Trust, QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) and has also received funding from a local charity, The Betty Martin Foundation in Midhurst.

Patrick has recently completed his apprenticeship of four years which comprised toolmaking, watch servicing, hand making parts and a restoration portfolio of five complicated projects.

Having completed his apprenticeship, Patrick has become a Fellow of the British Horological Institute. This brings the total number of watch makers at J E Allnutt & Son in West Street to five working alongside the three clock makers at Geoff Allnutt Clocks in Grange Road, Midhurst.

In 2017, Heritage Crafts published a report ranking traditional crafts as to whether they were likely to survive into the future. Both clockmaking and watchmaking were listed as ‘endangered’ and by 2021, watchmaking had moved into the ‘critically endangered’ list. This means that it is a craft that is at ‘serious risk of no longer being practised in the UK’, according to Heritage Crafts.

But it appears that the endangered craft of clock and watchmaking currently thrives in Midhurst on a site that has had continuous watch and clockmakers since at least the late 1890s.