Gillett & Johnston
A Croydon clock factory that added a bell foundry and became famous on both counts, and is still servicing tower clocks today.
William Gillett's clock factory
The company says William Gillett began as a clockmaker in Hadlow, Kent, moved to Clerkenwell in London, and then set up in Croydon, where it dates the business to 1844. Grace's Guide to British Industrial History also gives 1844 and says the firm first made small clocks.
Charles Bland became a partner around 1854, and as Gillett and Bland the firm turned to turret clocks. The company describes its works as one of the first steam-powered clock factories in the world, and says it built its own clock tower in 1868 as a working advertisement. By 1875, Grace's Guide says, it was making clocks on a large scale, improving carillon machinery, and had delivered a carillon to Shoreditch Parish Church and been chosen to supply one for Manchester's new town hall.
The Johnstons and the bell foundry
Arthur Johnston bought into the partnership in 1877, and a bell foundry was added to supply bells for the firm's clocks. The company says the Gillett and Johnston name seems to have come into use around that time. After Bland died in 1884 the firm became Gillett and Co., then Croydon Bell Foundry Ltd in 1925 and Gillett and Johnston Ltd in 1930, according to the company.
Arthur's son Cyril Johnston joined in 1902 and became a partner in 1907. The company says its first bell-tuning machine was installed in 1905 and credits Cyril with perfecting the tuning of bells, which made the firm's name known for bells and carillons around the world.
Its biggest bell went to New York. Grace's Guide says the firm completed an 18 1/4-ton bourdon bell in 1928 for the Laura A. Spelman Rockefeller Carillon at Riverside Church, which it calls the largest bell ever cast in England.
Recognizing a Gillett clock
The company counts more than 14,000 tower clock installations made at Croydon between 1844 and 1950, and a 1922 British Industries Fair advertisement recorded by Grace's Guide lists grandfather, grandmother, bracket, electric and tower clocks as well as bells and carillons. The firm name on a clock or bell gives a rough date: Gillett and Bland from about 1854, Gillett and Johnston from around 1877, Gillett and Co. from 1884, Croydon Bell Foundry Ltd from 1925 and Gillett and Johnston Ltd from 1930. Because names overlapped, treat these as guides rather than hard limits.
Commissions listed on the company's site include work for Tiffany and Co., Finsbury Town Hall, the Daily Mail, Polesden Lacey, Badminton House, Tottenham Hotspur, the Victoria Clock Tower in the Seychelles, the Victoria Theatre in Singapore and the Arts Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. Grace's Guide adds a clock at the Museum of East Anglian Life from about 1920, the movement of the Shell-Mex clock pictured in 1932, a quayside bell at Woodside, Birkenhead, in 1948 and a clock mechanism installed in a 1953 clock tower at Nailsworth, Gloucestershire.
See also: clocks built to face wind and rain outdoors on OnlineClock.app.
After the foundry
Cyril Johnston resigned as managing director in 1948 after a policy disagreement. In 1958, the company says, the bell foundry was sold to Cope Allman International and the clock section was bought by Synchronome.
The clock business then passed to the Coombes family. The company says Cecil Hector Coombes, a longtime employee, bought it in 1962, while Grace's Guide names Cyril Coombes and gives 1960, so the details differ. After his death in 1972 his widow, Doris, ran the firm until 1976, when their son Stephen became managing director.
In 2017 Gillett and Johnston moved to Edenbridge, Kent. Stephen Coombes, who joined his father in 1964, leads it with his wife Jenny, their daughter Sophie and her husband Gerry, according to the company. Its website, current in 2026, describes making, restoring, gilding and servicing clocks, dials, bells and carillons.
Questions people ask
Is Gillett and Johnston still in business?
Yes. The firm is a family business based in Edenbridge, Kent, since 2017. It makes, restores and maintains clocks and bells, though its bell foundry was sold off in 1958.
How do I tell how old a Gillett clock is?
Check the firm name. Gillett and Bland points to about 1854 or later, Gillett and Co. to 1884 or later, Croydon Bell Foundry Ltd to 1925 or later and Gillett and Johnston Ltd to 1930 or later. The Gillett and Johnston name itself seems to have been used from around 1877, so it alone gives only a rough date.