The Harris collection consists of a wide variety of clocks and watches with examples from all the major clock making countries and periods. However, clocks from England’s horological ‘Golden Age’, nominally from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, were Harris’s first love and many of the clocks at Belmont dating from this period are of national importance.

Harris was no armchair collector, he would not only watch “the wheels go round” but would take his clocks to pieces too, carrying out minor repairs and adjustments, though major overhauls were done by professionals, usually from the London firm of Frodsham. An aspect of the collection which makes it especially interesting is the presence at Belmont of Lord Harris’s meticulously filed letters and documents recording the process of forming the collection, including suppliers, dates of acquisition and prices paid.