A group dedicated to preserving Coventry’s watchmaking heritage has launched an appeal to help give their museum a permanent home.

THE TEMPORARY WATCH MUSEUM IN THE LOWER PRECINCT [1 May 1999]

The Coventry Watchmakers Project had a display in an empty shop in the Lower Precinct in the city centre.

But the volunteers and their collection of exhibits had to move out as re-development work in the area was beginning.

Members of the group have now found a suitable property to buy and give the museum a permanent founding.

They want to purchase a traditional watchmaker’s house in Spon End and restore it to how it would have looked at the peak of Coventry’s watch-making success.

And they have used this weekend’s Godiva Festival to launch a £35,000 appeal to get the money.

Project member Peter Naul said:

"There is enough space next to this property to build an extra wing for the museum. At first we would put the museum in a temporary structure like a portacabin.

"We would like to restore this house. There aren’t many examples of a traditional watchmaker’s cottage left for people to see.

"The museum would show watches and the tools that made the watches."

The main way the group hope to raise money is by selling copies of a video and book chronicling the watchmaking industry in Coventry.

Mr Naul said:

"£35,000 isn’t that much money if you consider the amount that is being spent on things in the city centre, like demolishing the Hippodrome and replacing it with a clock that won’t be of any use to anybody."

The video is available in formats suitable to both Britain and America. Details are available from Mr Naul by writing to:

The Secretary, Coventry Watch Museum Project Limited
PO Box 1714, Coventry CV3 6ZS

or by emailing 100624.1127@compuserve.com

The project started 12 years ago as the Craven Street Watch Project, and met in the old Post Office in Craven Street in Chapelfields.

The district was the heart of the watchmaking industry as it rose in the 1800s, peaked around 1850, and all but died out at the turn of the last century.

Many of the terraced houses in the streets around Craven Street – a conservation area – still have the "top-shops".

These were at the top of a house and had huge windows so the watchmaker could ply his skilled trade.