About the Business
Payne & Son, the jewellers and silversmiths of Tunbridge Wells, is run by one of the oldest families of jewellers in England. Indeed the firm can trace its history back to 1790 in Wallingford. Other shops opened in Abingdon in 1825, Banbury in 1841, Tunbridge Wells in 1870 and Oxford in 1889. Today the Payne family is still represented by Michael Payne in Tunbridge Wells, the seventh generation to become a jeweller. The large clock above the shop in Tunbridge Wells High Street is itself a well-known local landmark.
Thomas Payne continued as a jeweller and watchmaker until he died in 1886, taking his brother in law Sidney William Allen into partnership in 1884 as his own health was failing. This partnership was commemorated in the old mosaic step at Clock House, which proclaimed the fact that the firm was then also a bureau de change.
Thomas's widow Helen Elizabeth continued after his death, dissolving the partnership with Sidney William Allen in 1889.
Location & Hours
37 High St
