D. Rod Lloyd

I was born and raised in Southport, England. In 1969, I left school at age 15 [the school leaving age in England at the time]. I took on a five-year apprenticeship as a Carpenter and Joiner, working for Bob, an old-school Joiner who had no power tools or machines, so everything was done by hand tools. So I learned to use, and be proficient using all the woodworking hand tools. Eventually, one by one the power tools and machines came along.

My apprenticeship was four days per week working for Bob on the job, and one day and evening a week going to trade school. When I completed my apprenticeship, I continued going to trade school for an additional five years, earning qualifications from the Royal Institute of British Architects. I consider myself a Classically Trained Carpenter and Joiner. I ended up working as a City Building Inspector in Liverpool.

In 1995 I decided to change careers. I took a three-year course at Manchester Technical College in Horology [making and repairing clocks and watches] and became a certified Horologist by the British Horological Institute. Since then I have had hundreds of clocks across my bench.

Having moved to the USA, I started teaching clock repair classes in Portland Oregon for many years. I created class workbooks for the different types of clocks that the students brought in to work on. These books are those class workbooks that represent all the skills the students needed to learn to repair their clock and I cover all the questions and mistakes the students would make.