CIRCA 1760

This clock was rescued by Professor Sir Albert Richardson in 1926 when it was being turned out of the White Hart Inn, Ampthill. According to the inscription it had been there for 120 years before which it had been in the possession Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock at Houghton House, which lies just to the north of Ampthill. Houghton passed in 1767 to his son, also Francis Russell, who would become the 5th Duke of Bedford, and who stripped Houghton of its roof leaving it to decay. Houghton, thought to be the inspiration for House Beautiful in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, was one of Professor Richardson's early conservation projects and it was his efforts which eventually saved this magnificent structure from demolition by an unsympathetic local farmer.