St Bartholomew, Tong ~ Sundial
Posted by: 
DesG
N 52° 39.819 W 002° 18.212
30U E 547102 N 5835083
Column sundial which is inscribed at the bottom 'Remember Thomas Ore, 1766', on the left it is inscribed 'Damaged 1995' and on the right 'Restored 2000'
Waymark Code: WM90A4
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/08/2010
Views: 7
We did an online search for Thomas Ore and we came up with the following which may be of interest...
Thomas Ore was a renowned clock maker who made the turret clock for St. Phillip's Cathedral in Birmingham. He was a member of the Lunar Society who met in Soho, Handsworth each Lunar month at the home of Matthew Boulton. Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst of Derby and other leading industrialists of the day were members of the Society. In view of the travel involved they elected to meet on full Lunar moonlit nights.
Thomas Ore was apprenticed to John Baddeley of Tong, Shropshire and his known working dates are:
New Chapel, Wolverhampton 1759-77
Newmarket Row, Gt.Charles St., Birmingham 1779-86
In 1780 James Keir, a fellow member of the Lunar Society, and friend of Matthew Boulton wrote to his friend " I forward you a letter from the Duke of Northumberland concerning a clock which I suppose you will decline undertaking unless you choose to get Ore to make it …". Such was the esteem in which Ore was held.
Boulton had began making clocks which were housed in ormolu cases and rivalled French clocks for beauty.
He married Jane Phillips of St Nicholas, Worcester, at Wellington, Shropshire in 1760. His children were all baptised at Tong: Joseph 1763; Ann1765 buried 1766. He made a sundial for St. Bartholomew's, Tong signed Tho.Ore, 1776 which was fixed to the church but which was stolen in the 1990's.
Thomas Ore died in December 1786 and his wife continued the business but in 1789 the Birmingham Gazette records the sale of "the working told and unfinished clockwork etc belonging to the late Mr Thomas Ore, clock & watchmaker in Great Charles Street."