The Continuing Adventures....

24 March 1813

Dearest Husband,

As you know my plans were to stay in Derby for a few days to allow for repairs to the carriage to be completed. I regret to say, I am still at the hotel in Derby and am growing increasingly impatient to be on my way.

On the second night here there was a most unfortunate incident and, as a result, the local constabulary have asked all of the hotel guests to remain in the City until further notice. As you would expect I am not under any suspicion of wrong doing, but may have unwittingly witnessed something of importance although I can't see how that is possible. 

I was in the restaurant taking supper along with several other guests at the time of the incident, from the floor above the sound of a violin being played could be heard. Suddenly a female scream rang out, the violin music came to an abrupt halt and then came the sound of something hitting the floor rather heavily. Various gentlemen from nearby tables jumped to their feet and hurried from the restaurant and up the stairs, obviously seeking to provide assistance, and I followed with the same intention.

When we reached the room from which the noise had issued it was locked from within, a member of the hotel staff was nearby, they quickly unlocked the door and we rushed in. What I saw will remain in my memory for some time, lying on the floor was a very pale looking lady with what appeared to be a bite mark on her neck. She was quite clearly dead. Next to her on the floor was a violin, scarlet in colour, it lay in stark contrast to the pale skin of the unfortunate lady next to it. 

Naturally the Police were quick to arrive at the scene and the Inspector interviewed everyone in the building. He has confided in me that he is somewhat baffled, it seems that the unfortunate lady had been exsanguinated, but how that had happened in the moments between her scream and our entry into the room is beyond explanation. The Inspector has his task made more difficult in that the entire incident took place in a locked room - there are no suspects.

I hope to leave for Matlock Bath very soon and put this unpleasant business behind me, perhaps you were right and I should have travelled by airship after all.

I remain, as ever, your loving wife

E C-S

Further Correspondence of Lady Cog-Sprocket

17 March  1813

Dearest Husband,

My quest to witness a Crimson Clocks performance continues. As you know, I had arranged for a carriage to Matlock Bath, thus far my journey from Birmingham has been somewhat slower than I had originally anticipated.

 The carriage left Birmingham as planned, and we had expected to reach Derby for an overnight stay well before nightfall. However, as we travelled along a lane on the outskirts of Tutbury the coach gave a terrible jolt and we were brought to a rather sudden stop. We had encountered a rather deep hole, no doubt caused by the recent bad weather, and as a result one of the wheels now had several cracked spokes. Fortunately the driver and his assistant had the materials and tools to repair the damage, although darkness had fallen and it had begun to pour with rain before they had completed the task. 

Just after sunset, as the repair was nearing completion, we heard a multitude of raised voices coming down the lane towards us. A rather large group of people passed us by, some with knives in their hands while others carried fire-lit brands, they were clearly angry about something and yelled to us to "Look out!" so we made certain to keep out of their way as they passed. I can assure you that they meant us no harm, their anger was quite clearly directed elsewhere. I watched the light from their torches recede as they made their way toward the castle at the top of the hill. I feel sure that whoever their anger was directed towards was certainly going to get it, I would not have wanted to be in that persons shoes.

Once the repair was completed we set off once again, and arrived in Derby without further incident. The carriage is to undergo a full repair before we can recommence our journey and so I am to spend a few days in Derby - more delay and you are well aware of my impatience, but you may rest assured that I am safe and well. 

I remain, as ever, your loving wife

E C-S

  

   

Correspondence of Lady Ethel Cog-Sprocket

10 March  1813

Dearest Husband,

As you know I boarded the train late on Thursday night in London to arrive in Birmingham early the next morning; we should have arrived at 6:46 but the train was, as ever, running late. 

Despite my best efforts I am thus far unable to locate the tower, one's efforts are not helped by having no detailed information, as you know my search is based entirely on rumour and hearsay. To add to my confusion the local accent is somewhat difficult to comprehend, which is no assistance at all when seeking directions. I stopped a fellow in the street to ask if he knew the location of Crimson Clock Tower, only for him to reply "Oh it's them y're after is it, good luck ter yer wi' that!" and so saying he walked away with a sly grin on his face, to add insult to injury he turned to look at  me as he rounded a corner and started to laugh!.

I have had a small amount of luck though, one of the serving girls at the hotel asked me if I had visited the city before, I replied that I had not and that I was seeking the elusive Crimson Clocks, having heard tales of their exploits in London I had arrived in Birmingham hoping to see them, if not hear them. It appears that the girl had actually seen them perform in Birmingham some months ago. When asked what kind of music they performed I received the usual infuriating response to which I am rapidly becoming accustomed "Well....it's not really, erm...it's sort of, erm...I'm not really sure". She did allow that she had enjoyed their performance immensely though. The girl also informed me that she had heard (yes I know - another rumour, more hearsay) that they had left Birmingham and were due to be in Matlock Bath on 13th April. 

 I have of course booked a carriage to take me to Matlock Bath, I have never before travelled into deepest darkest Derbyshire and must admit that the thought of the journey fills me with excitement and not a small amount of dread. However, I am determined to succeed in my quest to witness a Crimson Clocks performance.

I have a few days to wait until the carriage departs, and will continue my efforts to locate the tower, I may even succeed before departing for Derbyshire. 

I remain, as ever, your loving wife

E C-S.

March Onwards....

Hello,

Welcome to this weeks edition of our blog.

From external appearances you could be forgiven for thinking that March will be a quiet month for Crimson Clocks. While we may not be making any public appearances this month, we will be busy and quite possibly noisy, albeit in private.

We will be sequestered in Crimson Clock Tower busily preparing for both The Day of The Dog on 13th April and The Selling Mars Book Launch on 27th April. Tickets for The Day of The Dog are available here while those for The Selling Mars Book Launch can be purchased here. The only viable excuses for not attending such fine events are that either you are suffering from a slight bout of Black Death, or have already died from it, and since it is most definitely not a Victorian illness it simply will not do! By which we mean to say come along to either or both events and you can be certain of having an extremely pleasant time.

Of course the main reason we are not travelling anywhere this month is that unfortunately Trevor does not travel well, and after a certain someones driving on the trip to New Maldon it may take a month to get his travel basket clean.  Just to clarify, that would be Trevor's travel basket and not the drivers. We lurched around one particular corner on the way back and Trevor was lucky not to be covered in hot coffee. The travel basket, alas, was not so fortunate.

Sad to say, we have reached the end of this weeks blog entry, as ever if you have any comments or would like to get in touch please do either via our Facebook page  or by email at crimsonclocks@crimsonclocks.com

Thanks for reading and until next time, farewell.

New Maldon Calling....

Hello,

Welcome to this weeks edition of the blog.

Yesterday the Second Surrey Steampunk Convivial took place in New Maldon which drew a wonderful group of people. We were there too, and you know what they said, well some of it was true - particularly with regard to The Best Cake in the World Competition. It truly was the best cake in the world, how could anyone hope to compete against a two tier cake, top tier being gin and tonic and the lower being rum and raisin, another culinary triumph from Malika Andress.

 
The tea duelling proved to be both highly enjoyable and highly competitve, while the snail racing featured possibly the largest gastropod since Zarozinia. There were the expected dastardly deeds in the Wacky Races to contend with as well.

There was so much going on that to list everything would be to write a book rather than a blog, all fantastically organised by Ben Henderson, thank you Sir!

In the evening it was time for the bands to take centre stage. It was our great pleasure to have Random Dent join us to add extra percussion on All Seeing Eye and Limbo, our grateful thanks go to you and to the gentleman that supplied the evil laugh during the intro to Evil Genius. Thanks also to those that bought CD's afterwards and for the supportive comments we received. The support of those in attendance was the highlight of the day for us, and given all of the wonderful happenings during the day that's saying quite a lot.

All of which brings us to the end of this weeks blog. As ever if you would like to contact us please do so via or Facebook page or email us at crimsonclocks@crimsonclocks.com

Thanks for reading, and until next time, farewell

We've Never Been This Far Away From Home

Hello,

Welcome to this weeks edition of the blog.

Final preparations are now under way for our journey to The Second Surrey Steampunk Convivial which will be a day full of events and an evening filled with music. Further details can be found, and tickets purchased on the website. We can't quite believe it, but we have never been this far away from home for a gig before. 

Our CD will be available on the day, and includes several of the songs we will perform on the night, if you would like to purchase a copy please be sure to speak to one of us. In fact we're quite happy to be spoken to regardless of desire for ownership of a CD, you may find that we like to speak and we love to be spoken to.

All being well, in our next edition we will be able to report just how serious the raffle was, describe the best cake in the world, advise on whether the miniature hot air ballooning was a success or a flight of fancy and describe the dastardly goings on during the Whacky Races.

Don't wait for our description of proceedings though, come along and witness every steam driven minute for yourself.

As ever if you would like to get in touch with us please do so via our Facebook page or email us at crimsonclocks@crimsonclocks.com.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, farewell.

Putting The Horse Before The Carriage

Hello,

Welcome to this weeks edition of the blog.

Things have been rather hectic at Crimson Clock Tower since we returned from Psychedelic Steampunk at The Pavillion in Matlock Bath last week. We are currently midway through our preparations for the journey to Surrey for The Second Surrey Steampunk Convival which takes place on 23 February.

There promises to be a full day of entertainments and distractions, followed by an evening of music, which will of course include ourselves. The carriage has recently been refurbished, the horses re-shod and all that is required now is for Quasar to load the trunks and we will be ready to set off. In case you are wondering, we couldn't get the rest of the elephants inside the carriage, there's only a limited amount of room onside, and a horse drawn TARDIS would be rather pointless wouldn't you say.

Speaking of Quasar, he is being unusually helpful at present, due to being in a rather good mood because his test results came back negative. We haven't the heart to tell him that isn't supposed to happen with an I.Q. test.

In other news, our website has recently been redesigned in a rather marvellous fashion, if you haven't had the opportunity to peruse it in all it's glory please be sure to do so. The splendidness can be observed here.

All of which brings us to the end of this weeks entry. If you've read this far then you probably deserve a medal, but we can only offer our grateful thanks.

As ever, if you would like to get in touch please contact us via our Facebook page, thanks for reading and until next time, farewell.