Firm expands

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 14

Firm expands

Almost a century ago, Robert Kennett tramped over the Bridle Path from Lyttelton and established himself at 183 High Street as “The People’s Watchmaker.” Today, at the same address but in enlarged premises, his grandson is carrying on the same business.

Well, almost the same business. In the early days the bootmaker did not always stick to his last, and both the founding Kennett and his son were opticians as well as watchmakers and jewellers. When a customer wanted his eyes checked rather than his watch regulated, Robert or his son Robert Laud retired to a back room and returned wearing a white coat. There have been other changes as well. A nineteenth century photograph shows Robert Kennett working in his shop window under a sign reading: “Clocks cleaned and regulated: 2s 6d.” Travelling to work presented no problems then, for the family lived on the

premises. The present owner’s father was borh in what used to be the kitchen and is now an office and workroom. Upstairs, the former dining room is now the main workshop, which must be one of the few in Christchurch to use equipment bought before the turn of the century. This includes rollers — mangle-like affairs—for producing rod of various thicknesses from gold sheet. Nowadays such equipment is powered by electric motors and is relatively sophisticated, but according to Mr A. R. Kennett it is also relatively fragile. They don’t make rollers like they

used to, he says, and he is happy that his fairly limited need for rod can be met by his hand - winched machines. About eight years ago, Kennett and Company enlarged their premises by taking over an adjoining shop, and they are now establishing a branch in the High Street triangle by taking over Mr A. C. C. Robilliard’s jewellery business. This business is to be. carried on under its present name. ABOVE: A section of one of Kennett and Company’s showrooms in High Street. BELOW: Mr A. R. Kennett winching a strip of metal through rollers bought last century and stijl in use.