The Clockmakers' Company is a livery company and I think livery companies are exclusive to the British Isles. Some countries, notably France and Germany, did have guilds which were much the same thing. And the Clockmakers' Livery Company had a huge collection of very important antique clocks, watches and so forth, and especially some of the best pieces of the greatest makers, who on the whole were English. All the great makers were English, and the scientific makers were English. So I was very happy to be able to get my hands on these pieces and learnt a tremendous amount from them and lived a very tranquil existence. I was surprised lately to be shown a bill for some work I did in 1960. A man had just bought a chronometer from a friend and he said, 'Just a moment I've got an important document that goes with this machine, I'm going to get it for you'. And so he disappeared into his strong room and came out with this sheet of paper, which said, 'To restoring marine chronometer at £2 an hour, George Daniels'.

So I wasn't charging very much money, but of course it was early days and money was worth a lot more then. But there it is, that invoice is known as an historic document now. It gives away what I was up to at the time.