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A number of points clarified and expanded with info from Hawley family history and other sources |
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'''Ken Hawley''' {{small|MBE}} (born Kenneth Wybert Hawley, 29 June 1927 - 15 August 2014) was a British |
'''Ken Hawley''' {{small|MBE}} (born Kenneth Wybert Hawley, 29 June 1927 - 15 August 2014) was a British tool specialist and industrial historian: he was a tool retailer, collector of tools and authority on the history of Sheffield manufacturing trades. He amassed what is recognised as one of the most significant collections of its type in the world. The Hawley Collection is now housed at [[Kelham Island Museum]] in [[Sheffield]], England. |
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== Life and career == |
== Life and career == |
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Kenneth Wybert Hawley was born on the [[Manor, South Yorkshire|Manor estate]] in Sheffield on 29 June 1927 |
Kenneth Wybert Hawley was born on the [[Manor, South Yorkshire|Manor estate]] in Sheffield on 29 June 1927 to Walter and Isabella Hawley. His father was a self-made man, a wire-worker who set up his own business Wire Products, making [[machine guarding|wire guards for machinery in the Sheffield's manufacturing industries. Ken and his parents moved to the [[Wadsley]] area of the city in 1932, and to a newly-built semi-detached house in the same area in 1939 where he lived for the remainder of his life.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bateson|first1=Derek|title=The Ken Hawley Experience|date=2010|publisher=Ken Hawley Collection Trust|location=Sheffield|isbn=978-0-9566806-0-0|page=8}}</ref> ]]. |
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Hawley attended Marlcliffe County Infant and Junior School, Wisewood Secondary School and in 1940 gained entrance to Sheffield Junior Technical School. He left school a year later at the age of fourteen as part of the war effort, to assist in his father's business who needed workers to replace those called up to the armed forces. One of the jobs he was given was to measure up and design solutions to fit each machine. The young Ken, as he has described it, "crawled about the floors of filthy workshops measuring up machines - with no room for errors - so that he could go back to his father’s workshops for the guards to be specially made". As a result he was exposed to many industrial workshops in the city and the experience gave him an enduring respect for those who worked in the Sheffield [[cutlery]] and tool-manufacturing industries, which were then still famous throughout the world; it also instilled in him an abiding curiosity for how they had achieved their status and produced their wares.<ref name="barley">{{cite news |title=Ken Hawley obituary |first=Simon |last=Barley |date=19 August 2014 |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/aug/19/ken-hawley |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Hawley then spent some time in the [[British Army]] under the compulsory [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|National Service]] scheme. Upon being released in 1947, he became a tool salesman, working firstly for |
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⚫ | Hawley then spent some time in the [[British Army]] under the compulsory [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|National Service]] scheme. Upon being released in 1947, he became a tool salesman, working firstly for Sheffield hardware firm Wilkes Bros., then for [[Joseph Gleave]] of [[Manchester]], and then becoming shop manager for tool merchants J. Rhodes & Sons in [[Rotherham]]. He married Emily in 1953; the couple had two sons.<ref name="barley" /><ref name="cossons">{{cite journal |title=Ken Hawley MBE |first=Neil |last=Cossons |journal=Newcomen Links |issue=232 |page=23 |date=December 2014 |publisher=[[Newcomen Society]] |issn=1478-484X}}</ref> |
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⚫ | In 1959, Hawley established his own specialist tool |
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⚫ | In 1959, Hawley established his own specialist tool retail business in Sheffield, firstly taking a premises in Button Lane, but moving to shop in Earl Street off the Moor in 1961. His shop gained a reputation for selling quality tools, having unparalleled knowledge of tools and of matching tools to customers' needs.<ref>{{cite web|last1=1978|website=http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10646689|accessdate=10 January 2015}}</ref> At the back of the shop Hawley kept a packing crate marked 'Crap' for any tools that fell below his expectations of quality, and supplying firms' representatives were given a full appriasal of any sub-standard items, which resulted in a number of design and/or material improvements to tools. The shop had an official advertising slogan "K.W. Hawley Tools Ltd - for all the best tools", but also displayed a sign in the shop "We sell nowt but tools" to distinguish it from [[ironmonger]]s and general [[household hardware|hardware]] stores.<ref name="barley" />{{efn| Hawley was always courteous and empathetic to his customers, but was not shy of using the vernacular or speaking his mind. He once told a construction worker that the [[cold chisel]] being used to do a job was so blunt that "You could ride bare-arsed to London on that."<ref name="cossons" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Retro: farewell to man who saved Sheffield’s tool-making heritage |first=Julia |last=Armstrong |work=The Star |date=23 August 2014 |url=http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/going-out/retro-farewell-to-man-who-saved-sheffield-s-tool-making-heritage-1-6800982 |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref>}} Hawley ceased his involvement in his tool shop in 1989. |
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⚫ | He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by [[Sheffield Hallam University]] in 1995 and was appointed a [[Member of the Order of the British Empire|MBE]] in 1998.<ref name="cossons" /> The latter honour was bestowed for his forty-year involvement as, according to several obituaries,<ref name="barley" /><ref name="cossons"/> the "driving force" behind restoration of [[Wortley Top Forge]], a 17th-century [[finery forge]] and [[ironworks]] that has been restored by volunteers who were inspired by him.<ref name="sheffieldtelegraph">{{cite news |title=Tribute to ‘a true son of Sheffield’ |date=21 August 2014 |work=Sheffield Telegraph |url=http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/tribute-to-a-true-son-of-sheffield-1-6796269 |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref> He was also a founder member and President of the [[Tools and Trades History Society]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Tools and Trades History Society |publisher=Tools and Trades History Society |url=http://old.taths.org.uk/ |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref> |
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== Collecting == |
== Collecting == |
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Hawley said that he had no interest in history until 1950, when he visited a customer to demonstrate a machine. While at the customer's premises, he noticed a joiner's [[brace (tool)|brace]] of a design that he had not seen before and was able to acquire it. Perhaps the most significant single development to his collection came in 1965 when he paid a business visit to the [[William Marples]] company and discovered that the firm's [[plane (tool)|plane]]-manufacturing workshop was being close. The Marples company was the last maker of a specific type of wooden plane and Hawley asked whether he could have some examples. |
Hawley said that he had no interest in history until 1950, when he visited a customer to demonstrate a machine. While at the customer's premises, he noticed a joiner's [[brace (tool)|brace]] of a design that he had not seen before and was able to acquire it. Perhaps the most significant single development to his collection came in 1965 when he paid a business visit to the [[William Marples]] company and discovered that the firm's [[plane (tool)|plane]]-manufacturing workshop was being close. The Marples company was the last maker of a specific type of wooden plane and Hawley asked whether he could have some examples.According to his own account, it wasn't long before he was carting off the entire contents of the workshop in his Volvo estate. "The only thing left was the benches," he said, and after a phone call to the owner he took those as well.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hawley|first1=Ken|title=Ken Hawley Tool Collector|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijCEeRIdQSo/ijCEeRIdQSo|publisher=corvideos.com|accessdate=10 January 2015}}</ref> But more than just collect the artefacts, what Hawley realised was that knowedge of the skills of wooden [[moulding plane]]-making would be lost with retirement of Albert Boch, the last plane maker at Marples. So, he recruited two cine-camera enthusiasts to help him film Albert Boch making a plane from strat to finish; and he went on to make other short films showing surviving makers in a range of tool manufacturing trades in their working environment before they disapperared. He also considered trade catalogues and other ancillary items an important record and illustration of the range of products, many of which have no suviving examples, and these were added to his acquisitions. |
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As time passed, Hawley became known for uttering the phrase, "You'll not be wanting this, will you?"<ref name="sheffieldtelegraph" /> The Sheffield tool-making industry [[Economy of Sheffield|went into decline]] due to changes both in the economy and in technology and he acquired a reputation as the person to approach when a business was closing. His knowledge, which was bolstered by an interest in researching the disappearing skills, enabled him to select those items that were worthy of adding to his collection |
As time passed, Hawley became known for uttering the phrase, "You'll not be wanting this, will you?"<ref name="sheffieldtelegraph" /> The Sheffield tool-making industry [[Economy of Sheffield|went into decline]] due to changes both in the economy and in technology and he acquired a reputation as the person to approach when a business was closing. His knowledge, which was bolstered by an interest in researching the disappearing skills, enabled him to select those items that were worthy of adding to his collection.<ref name="barley" /> |
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The extent of the Hawley Collection was matched by the extent of his knowledge regarding it. It comprises over 70,000 tools, mostly but not entirely from Sheffield, as well as catalogues and other documents. The tools include many examples of such things as planes, table knives, anvils, files, taps and dies, rules, micrometers, scissors, hammers, handsaws, and [[vernier gauge|vernier]] and caliper gauges. He stored these in two garden sheds, then in his garage. The garage was eventually turned into a two-storey building to provide more space, and he also used his attic as well as space begged from other people.<ref name="cossons" />{{efn|The total number of objects in the collection exceeds 100,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hawley Gallery |publisher=Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust |url=http://www.simt.co.uk/kelham-island-museum/what-to-see/the-hawley-gallery |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref>}} |
The extent of the Hawley Collection was matched by the extent of his knowledge regarding it. It comprises over 70,000 tools, mostly but not entirely from Sheffield, as well as catalogues and other documents. The tools include many examples of such things as planes, table knives, anvils, files, taps and dies, rules, micrometers, scissors, hammers, handsaws, and [[vernier gauge|vernier]] and caliper gauges. He stored these in two garden sheds, then in his garage. The garage was eventually turned into a two-storey building to provide more space, and he also used his attic as well as space begged from other people.<ref name="cossons" />{{efn|The total number of objects in the collection exceeds 100,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Hawley Gallery |publisher=Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust |url=http://www.simt.co.uk/kelham-island-museum/what-to-see/the-hawley-gallery |accessdate=2014-12-23}}</ref>}} |
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Hawley spread his knowledge among a team of volunteers who both assisted in cataloguing the collection and in some cases became experts in their own right.<ref name="cossons" /> He also co-authored books on various aspects of the Sheffield steel industries and took part in many interviews that have since been transcribed.<ref name="barley" /> |
Hawley spread his knowledge among a team of volunteers who both assisted in cataloguing the collection and in some cases became experts in their own right.<ref name="cossons" /> He also co-authored books on various aspects of the Sheffield steel industries and took part in many interviews that have since been transcribed.<ref name="barley" /> |
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The Hawley Collection first came into public prominence following a meeting in 1991 with Janet Barnes, who was then Director of the [[Ruskin Gallery]] in Sheffield. An exhibition titled ''The Cutting Edge'' was arranged that drew upon the material and this led to the formation of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust, whose objective was to acquire and conserve it. Funding from the [[Heritage Lottery Fund]] (HLF) and support from the [[University of Sheffield]] led to the collection being transferred to premises at the university |
The Hawley Collection first came into public prominence following a meeting in 1991 with Janet Barnes, who was then Director of the [[Ruskin Gallery]] in Sheffield. An exhibition titled ''The Cutting Edge'' was arranged that drew upon the material and this led to the formation of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust in 1993, whose objective was to acquire and conserve it. Funding from the [[Heritage Lottery Fund]] (HLF) and support from the [[University of Sheffield]] led in 1995 to the collection being transferred to premises at the university which was named "The Hawley Building"<ref name="cossons" />; the original use of which was identified by Ken Hawley, from an illustration in his collection of trade posters, as a steel stockholding warehouse for the firm S & C Wardlows. <ref>{{cite book|last1=Bateson|first1=Derek|title=The Ken Hawley Experience|date=2010|publisher=Ken Hawley Collection Trust|location=Sheffield|isbn=978-0-9566806-0-0|page=9}}</ref> ]]. The Hawley Collection was officially recognised as a museum in 2002.<ref name="barley" /> A further, much larger HLF grant in 2008 allowed more spacious and specialist premises to be formed by converting buildings at Kelham Island Museum in the city. Those premises opened in 2010 and were extended in 2012; a third phase of development has been proposed.<ref name="cossons" /> |
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The collection is, according to Barley, "widely recognised as one of the best places to learn about tools and tool-making anywhere in the world".<ref name="barley" /> |
The collection is, according to Barley, "widely recognised as one of the best places to learn about tools and tool-making anywhere in the world".<ref name="barley" /> |
Revision as of 00:51, 11 January 2015
Ken Hawley MBE (born Kenneth Wybert Hawley, 29 June 1927 - 15 August 2014) was a British tool specialist and industrial historian: he was a tool retailer, collector of tools and authority on the history of Sheffield manufacturing trades. He amassed what is recognised as one of the most significant collections of its type in the world. The Hawley Collection is now housed at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, England.
Life and career
Kenneth Wybert Hawley was born on the Manor estate in Sheffield on 29 June 1927 to Walter and Isabella Hawley. His father was a self-made man, a wire-worker who set up his own business Wire Products, making [[machine guarding|wire guards for machinery in the Sheffield's manufacturing industries. Ken and his parents moved to the Wadsley area of the city in 1932, and to a newly-built semi-detached house in the same area in 1939 where he lived for the remainder of his life.[1] ]].
Hawley attended Marlcliffe County Infant and Junior School, Wisewood Secondary School and in 1940 gained entrance to Sheffield Junior Technical School. He left school a year later at the age of fourteen as part of the war effort, to assist in his father's business who needed workers to replace those called up to the armed forces. One of the jobs he was given was to measure up and design solutions to fit each machine. The young Ken, as he has described it, "crawled about the floors of filthy workshops measuring up machines - with no room for errors - so that he could go back to his father’s workshops for the guards to be specially made". As a result he was exposed to many industrial workshops in the city and the experience gave him an enduring respect for those who worked in the Sheffield cutlery and tool-manufacturing industries, which were then still famous throughout the world; it also instilled in him an abiding curiosity for how they had achieved their status and produced their wares.[2]
Hawley then spent some time in the British Army under the compulsory National Service scheme. Upon being released in 1947, he became a tool salesman, working firstly for Sheffield hardware firm Wilkes Bros., then for Joseph Gleave of Manchester, and then becoming shop manager for tool merchants J. Rhodes & Sons in Rotherham. He married Emily in 1953; the couple had two sons.[2][3]
In 1959, Hawley established his own specialist tool retail business in Sheffield, firstly taking a premises in Button Lane, but moving to shop in Earl Street off the Moor in 1961. His shop gained a reputation for selling quality tools, having unparalleled knowledge of tools and of matching tools to customers' needs.[4] At the back of the shop Hawley kept a packing crate marked 'Crap' for any tools that fell below his expectations of quality, and supplying firms' representatives were given a full appriasal of any sub-standard items, which resulted in a number of design and/or material improvements to tools. The shop had an official advertising slogan "K.W. Hawley Tools Ltd - for all the best tools", but also displayed a sign in the shop "We sell nowt but tools" to distinguish it from ironmongers and general hardware stores.[2][a] Hawley ceased his involvement in his tool shop in 1989.
He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Sheffield Hallam University in 1995 and was appointed a MBE in 1998.[3] The latter honour was bestowed for his forty-year involvement as, according to several obituaries,[2][3] the "driving force" behind restoration of Wortley Top Forge, a 17th-century finery forge and ironworks that has been restored by volunteers who were inspired by him.[6] He was also a founder member and President of the Tools and Trades History Society.[7]
Ken Hawley died on 15 August 2014; he is survived by his wife and sons.[2]
Collecting
Hawley said that he had no interest in history until 1950, when he visited a customer to demonstrate a machine. While at the customer's premises, he noticed a joiner's brace of a design that he had not seen before and was able to acquire it. Perhaps the most significant single development to his collection came in 1965 when he paid a business visit to the William Marples company and discovered that the firm's plane-manufacturing workshop was being close. The Marples company was the last maker of a specific type of wooden plane and Hawley asked whether he could have some examples.According to his own account, it wasn't long before he was carting off the entire contents of the workshop in his Volvo estate. "The only thing left was the benches," he said, and after a phone call to the owner he took those as well.[8] But more than just collect the artefacts, what Hawley realised was that knowedge of the skills of wooden moulding plane-making would be lost with retirement of Albert Boch, the last plane maker at Marples. So, he recruited two cine-camera enthusiasts to help him film Albert Boch making a plane from strat to finish; and he went on to make other short films showing surviving makers in a range of tool manufacturing trades in their working environment before they disapperared. He also considered trade catalogues and other ancillary items an important record and illustration of the range of products, many of which have no suviving examples, and these were added to his acquisitions.
As time passed, Hawley became known for uttering the phrase, "You'll not be wanting this, will you?"[6] The Sheffield tool-making industry went into decline due to changes both in the economy and in technology and he acquired a reputation as the person to approach when a business was closing. His knowledge, which was bolstered by an interest in researching the disappearing skills, enabled him to select those items that were worthy of adding to his collection.[2]
The extent of the Hawley Collection was matched by the extent of his knowledge regarding it. It comprises over 70,000 tools, mostly but not entirely from Sheffield, as well as catalogues and other documents. The tools include many examples of such things as planes, table knives, anvils, files, taps and dies, rules, micrometers, scissors, hammers, handsaws, and vernier and caliper gauges. He stored these in two garden sheds, then in his garage. The garage was eventually turned into a two-storey building to provide more space, and he also used his attic as well as space begged from other people.[3][b]
Hawley spread his knowledge among a team of volunteers who both assisted in cataloguing the collection and in some cases became experts in their own right.[3] He also co-authored books on various aspects of the Sheffield steel industries and took part in many interviews that have since been transcribed.[2]
The Hawley Collection first came into public prominence following a meeting in 1991 with Janet Barnes, who was then Director of the Ruskin Gallery in Sheffield. An exhibition titled The Cutting Edge was arranged that drew upon the material and this led to the formation of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust in 1993, whose objective was to acquire and conserve it. Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and support from the University of Sheffield led in 1995 to the collection being transferred to premises at the university which was named "The Hawley Building"[3]; the original use of which was identified by Ken Hawley, from an illustration in his collection of trade posters, as a steel stockholding warehouse for the firm S & C Wardlows. [10] ]]. The Hawley Collection was officially recognised as a museum in 2002.[2] A further, much larger HLF grant in 2008 allowed more spacious and specialist premises to be formed by converting buildings at Kelham Island Museum in the city. Those premises opened in 2010 and were extended in 2012; a third phase of development has been proposed.[3]
The collection is, according to Barley, "widely recognised as one of the best places to learn about tools and tool-making anywhere in the world".[2]
Publications
Among Hawley's publications are:
- A Cut above the Rest - the Heritage of Sheffield's Blade Manufactures (2003), with Joan Unwin
- Sheffield Images - Cutlery, Silver and Edge Tools, with Joan Unwin
- Wooden Spokeshaves (2007), with Denis Watts
- Knifemaking in Sheffield and the Hawley Collection, with Ruth Grayson
References
Notes
- ^ Hawley was always courteous and empathetic to his customers, but was not shy of using the vernacular or speaking his mind. He once told a construction worker that the cold chisel being used to do a job was so blunt that "You could ride bare-arsed to London on that."[3][5]
- ^ The total number of objects in the collection exceeds 100,000.[9]
Citations
- ^ Bateson, Derek (2010). The Ken Hawley Experience. Sheffield: Ken Hawley Collection Trust. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-9566806-0-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Barley, Simon (19 August 2014). "Ken Hawley obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cossons, Neil (December 2014). "Ken Hawley MBE". Newcomen Links (232). Newcomen Society: 23. ISSN 1478-484X.
- ^ 1978. http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10646689.
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(help) - ^ Armstrong, Julia (23 August 2014). "Retro: farewell to man who saved Sheffield's tool-making heritage". The Star. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
- ^ a b "Tribute to 'a true son of Sheffield'". Sheffield Telegraph. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
- ^ "Tools and Trades History Society". Tools and Trades History Society. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
- ^ Hawley, Ken. "Ken Hawley Tool Collector". corvideos.com. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
- ^ "The Hawley Gallery". Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
- ^ Bateson, Derek (2010). The Ken Hawley Experience. Sheffield: Ken Hawley Collection Trust. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-9566806-0-0.
Further reading
- You'll not be wanting this then, will you?: Ken Hawley - A Collector's Tale (Video, including interviews with Hawley and historic film footage)