About Barend Wempe

About Barend Wempe .....Clockmaker .See From the Minutes of the Catholic parish St Bavo in Schoten Meeting of 28 Oct 1872..

From the Minutes of the Catholic parish St Bavo in Schoten Meeting of 28 Oct 1872...

'tn the summer of 1858,the building af the St Bavo church in Schoten (a predominantly

Catholic township) was about completed .The locals betieved their new church deserved a

new tower clock ,which would strike each hour and half hour and would three times per

doy remind the faithlut of the time for the Angelus ...The local clockmaker of the day ,the

late Barend Wempe ,was alleged to have totally an his own initiative and without raising

the issue af compensation ,undertaken to leave the creation and placement of this work of

engineering to him . Until t the autumn of l870, a good 12 years hence,no-one again

mentioned the clock . tn September of that year ,the parish council of the day was invited

to be present at the commissioning of this work of engineering . ,but also to receive a

request for payment for 700 guilders . What was it to do? To refuse to accept a work so

generously offered by the maker to be undertaken was too embarrassing - So the City

Council was asked il it would make a present of the clock to the church ,by picking up the

bill .When that did not produce results ,the parish council decided to have the clock

inspected and valued by an expert .,.Would you believe it, the expert valued the clock at

precisely 700 guilders....The parish council decided to accept the bill and pay it.

The clockmaker was Barend Wempe 1809-1862),who had been taught the trade by his

Dad, Cornelis Wempe . Barend passed on his skill to  his son in law, Johannes Alders (1839-

1927),who also functioned as sacristician ,who in turn passed on his skill to his son

Hendrik Alders (1869-1946 ),who in turn passed it on to his son Cor ,who apart trom fixing

clocks also played the Church Organ-

'DE OPRECHTE HAARLEMSE COURANT' 1932 reports....

Herein the portrait ol Mr Hendrik Alders (1859-1946) ol Riikstraat weg 286 in Haarlem

,who next month will celebrate a very curious jubilee...He has for 35 years  been entrusted

with the maintenance and good operations of the clocks of the churches in Spaarndam,

Velsen, Driehuis, Santpoort ,both provincial hospitals,Town Hall in Schoten and the R C

Church in Haarlem North .He follows his father lohannes Alders  (1839-1927 ) ,who before

him had taken care of this task for 17 consecutive years .

Expect a man to work  on a job for 12 years  all for free ,while the parish-priest will not go 

without his daily cigar .........Miserable sods !