Scott Davis was just four when his father brought home a bag of rusting clock parts for him to play with.

He had found them abandoned on a tip and thought they might keep his son occupied for a few hours.

The bag of bits sparked a fascination with timepieces which led Scott to become one of Britain's leading restorers.

Since then he has worked on some of the most valuable clocks in the world, including a £6.5 million masterpiece made by the celebrated 17th Century horologist Thomas Tompion.

Scott, 31, was called in by the British Museum two years ago to restore the clock, known as The Mostyn, which was made for William III in 1690.

He has also "discovered" a previously unknown marquetry long case clock made by Tompion, worth £1 million.

Scott, from Mile Oak, Portslade, said: "A family from the Newmarket area contacted me and said they had a clock I might be interested in working on.

"I arrived and found this grandfather clock by Tompion sitting on the staircase.

"It had been in their family for 300 years and they still had the original bill of sale signed by Tompion. It was an amazing moment."

Scott, a former student at Portslade Community College, nurtured his interest in horology during his teens.

While his friends were out playing football, Scott spent his spare time in local workshops learning what was to become his trade.

Aged 15, Scott could regularly be found trawling local markets at 5am looking for pieces to restore.

He said: "The best thing I found was a lantern clock from 1680, which I bought for £5.

"It was a mess of rust and dust and it took me a year of research and work to restore it.

"When it was finished I sold it for £1,200, which helped to pay for my clock-making studies."

After leaving school Scott tried his hand at being a gardener and a mechanic before deciding his future lay in restoration work.

Four years ago he was one of eight people chosen annually to study at West Dean College, near Chichester.

He has since won two major prizes from the British Antique Dealers' Association and become a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and a freeman of the City of London.

He uses traditional methods to restore the clocks, musical boxes and barometers brought to his small workshop in Hove.

Many of the parts he makes are crafted on a 150-year-old lathe.

Every one is signed so it can be recognised as a restoration, distinct from the work of the original maker.

Scott said: "It is nice to know that when historically important clocks are restored in the future my name will be there alongside the likes of Tompion."

However, there is one project he has never got round to finishing.

The first clock he put together from the bits his father brought home has never run.

Scott said: "It is a Black Forest mantel clock from Germany, which I have still got at home.

"For the sake of posterity, I will have to get it running again."