Lancashire Pattern Tools.

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Cheshirechappie

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A recent thread about a pair of Thewlis pincers and some rummaging on Thewlis' history ( thewlis-pincers-and-a-bit-of-thewlis-history-t104398.html ) leads to the wider question of Lancashire Pattern tools in general - Thewlis being a firm based in Warrington, which is, as every fule kno, still in Lancashire. (Well, alright, some fools in local government think it was moved into Cheshire in 1974, but people of sense and taste obviously know better!)

Lancashire has a long association with industry; most people will think of Manchester and cotton, Liverpool and shipping, and maybe the Furness iron industry. There was also extensive coal mining across south Lancashire, chemicals in Widnes and St Helens, and glass in the latter town, too. During the 19th century, heavy engineering developed across the region - mill engines, machine tools, locomotives; Warrington became the nation's centre for wire drawing and working. However, apart from the Furness area, Lancashire never really had an iron and steel industry.

The area did, however, develop some history of tool making. Some of this was associated around the watch and clock parts trade centred on Prescot, a town about six or seven miles from Liverpool (and now pretty well part of Liverpool's suburbs). This trade goes back to the 16th century, and as AndyT mentioned in the Thewlis thread, was very much a cottage industry, with very few if any large establishments. Part of that trade was the making of the necessary files.

Liverpool did play host in the 19th century to a handful of plane makers, including a branch of the well-known Glasgow firm of Alexander Mathieson, and it had a small number of saw and edge tool makers. Given it's rising prominence as a port, and it's rapid expansion at the time requiring a lot of carpentry and joinery, that's not so surprising; but few seem to have survived long in the 20th century. Manchester, too, had a few, of which Joseph Gleave still exist, though they long ago ceased making planes. Warrington had a few small to medium firms making tools, notably pliers - which probably isn't surprising in a town dominated by wire - but only Stubs seem to have survived long into the 20th century. (Caldwells - Stockton Heath Forge - were another, but their metier was shovels, crowbars and such, not woodworking tools. There's also Bulldog Tools of Wigan, who are still in business, but they too are spade, fork and shovel makers.)

The only Lancashire Pattern woodworking tool I can think of that has become in any way common is the Warrington pattern hammer, now made everywhere except Warrington. There was also a Lancashire pattern shoulder plane, but they only surface rarely, and are more a collector's speciality these days, and the pincers mentioned in the Thewlis thread - again not as common as other patterns, and hacksaws, ditto. R.A.Salaman in his 'Dictionary of Woodworking Tools' notes a range of tools mostly associated with the watch and clock trade, and a long list of household items such as lemon racers, corkscrews, ladies netting vices (whatever they are!), sugar nippers and tweezers.

It seems odd that in an area of considerable industry, tool making didn't become more established. It started, and in a few specialised niches flourished, but seemed to mostly whither and die out in the earlier years of the 20th century. Any ideas why?
 
This is just my own hypothesis, but I wonder if the decline of the Lancashire trade was mainly due to the rise of toolmaking in Sheffield and the Black Country? It would need to be investigated by an economic historian, but it seems possible that Lancashire had a disadvantage by being established early on - other centres only had to compete on price to take the business away, and if the Lancashire makers were too slow to adapt their practices in response, they would lose their early lead.
 
Hello,

I don't know why toolmakers were less common in Lancashire, but re. comment about Liverpool plane makers; I know of two.

I have a rather lovely screw stemmed plough from R Fairclough and Co, 72 Byrom Street Liverpool. The other maker I have heard of is Bridge. My plough seems to be as well made as any of the best makers I have seen, and the examples of Bridge I have come across are also fine. Given that there was a lot of woodworking done in Liverpool, ship building etc. There must have been a good demand for woodworking tools. I have no knowledge of how long these planemakers were active or why they disappeared, but Liverpool being a busy port bringing lots of goods from all over, tools must have been available from everywhere. The canal system must have made tools from Yorkshire available that way as well.

Re. Fairclough, I'm assuming it was the maker and not the tool dealer. It is the only stamp on the plane aside from the owners stamps.

Mike.
 
AndyT":1vn6xczz said:
This is just my own hypothesis, but I wonder if the decline of the Lancashire trade was mainly due to the rise of toolmaking in Sheffield and the Black Country? It would need to be investigated by an economic historian, but it seems possible that Lancashire had a disadvantage by being established early on - other centres only had to compete on price to take the business away, and if the Lancashire makers were too slow to adapt their practices in response, they would lose their early lead.

That sounds entirely plausible. The history of Thewlis and a couple of other Warrington firms suggests that after WW1 in the difficult economic conditions, they either folded or were 'consolidated' into larger firms based elsewhere (Sheffield), and ultimately 'rationalised'. One suspects that Lancashire not having a native steel industry rather counted against it too; all steel would have to be brought in from elsewhere. (Stubs bought their own steelworks in Sheffield in the early to mid 1800s, so had more control over steel supply than any of their neighbours. Consequently, they lasted better.)
 
woodbrains":a0eh0cnc said:
Hello,

I don't know why toolmakers were less common in Lancashire, but re. comment about Liverpool plane makers; I know of two.

I have a rather lovely screw stemmed plough from R Fairclough and Co, 72 Byrom Street Liverpool. The other maker I have heard of is Bridge. My plough seems to be as well made as any of the best makers I have seen, and the examples of Bridge I have come across are also fine. Given that there was a lot of woodworking done in Liverpool, ship building etc. There must have been a good demand for woodworking tools. I have no knowledge of how long these planemakers were active or why they disappeared, but Liverpool being a busy port bringing lots of goods from all over, tools must have been available from everywhere. The canal system must have made tools from Yorkshire available that way as well.

Re. Fairclough, I'm assuming it was the maker and not the tool dealer. It is the only stamp on the plane aside from the owners stamps.

Mike.

A rather intense rummaging session brought forth the following; Robert Fairclough and Co, Planemakers, were located at 72 Byrom Street, Liverpool in 1853. There was no record of them by 1894, however.

In 1900 Liverpool, there are 4 plane makers listed; Aird and Anderson (12 Whitechapel), J J Harley (27 Old Haymarket), Alexander Mathieson (41 Byrom Street), and Slack & Howden (87 Park Lane). There were also 14 saw makers (including the above), 11 Edge Tool Makers (ditto), and 30 Tool Manufacturers (ditto), though how many of those made woodworking tools is not clear; I suspect some produced for other trades.
 
This a fascinating thread to me. My small contribution is that I have a moulding plane marked Taylor Liverpool, which I was interested to find as a native of that city.
 
rxh":80xti6gg said:
This a fascinating thread to me. My small contribution is that I have a moulding plane marked Taylor Liverpool, which I was interested to find as a native of that city.

Hello,

Taylor bros were the main tool dealers in Liverpool city centre, in London Road. I'm sure they were descendants of the maker of your plane, or perhaps it was bearing their dealers stamp of the same. I used to shop at there and some of the tools I still own were from there. Sadly Taylor Bros relocated from their London Road shop, perhaps 20 years ago; I remember buying a Record 010 on sale as old new stock during the closing down period. They never seemed to do well after the relocation and internet shopping got more popular so they struggled despite becoming more of an online shop themselves. They stopped trading in 2013. Perhaps the last vestige of Liverpool's toolmaking history.

Mike.
 
Thanks Mike. Another Liverpool tool dealer I recall was Kelley, who sold tools stamped with their own name but I suppose may have been made by others.
 
More rummaging!

Taylor Brothers are not listed as plane makers, edge tool makers or saw makers, but they are listed in Gore's 1900 Trade Directory as Ironmongers, located at 213 London Road.

However - BPM2 lists John Taylor as a plane maker at 7, Poplar Lane, Cumberland Street between 1816 and 1849; later Taylor and Son 1850 to 1860.

Robert Kelly is listed in 1900 at 30 and 32 Renshaw Street, but as an Edge Tool Maker.

By the way, I found all this stuff when a google for something or other brought up this link - http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/ ... 16445coll4 - which seems to be a large collection of digitised trade directories from most of England and Wales. It's not complete, but there's a lot there; you do need a fair bit of persistence to find things, though!
 
Cheshirechappie":1mjb5ks3 said:
There was also a Lancashire pattern shoulder plane, but they only surface rarely, and are more a collector's speciality these days



Had to look that one up. What a wierd and cool beast. Like a tiny skewed shooting board plane. It's probably a good thing that I'll likely never run up against one for sale.
 
bridger":3uwnd92l said:
Cheshirechappie":3uwnd92l said:
There was also a Lancashire pattern shoulder plane, but they only surface rarely, and are more a collector's speciality these days



Had to look that one up. What a wierd and cool beast. Like a tiny skewed shooting board plane. It's probably a good thing that I'll likely never run up against one for sale.

Yes! I've lived most of my life within a stone's throw of the area in question, and worked in it for more than two decades, but I've never seen one except in photographs. I don't know who made them, where or when. I don't even know how they were made - casting, drawn or rolled brass angle, or fabricated in the manner of dovetailed steel planes. Given that the area had a long horological tradition, I'm not particularly surprised by the choice of brass; every town had at least one brassfounder, and clock plate brass would have been readily available. There were several copper smelting works in the area, too.

Given the commercial success of the Stanley 78, it's a bit of a puzzle why they didn't catch on - lack of marketing, maybe? They have a surprisingly modern look with the bevel-up, low-angle configuration, too!

For those still wondering what we're on about, here's an example from the Oldtools website ; http://www.oldtools.co.uk/home/1275-lan ... plane.html , and here's one in use from a blogpost by Chris Schwarz - https://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/03/2 ... stigating/
 
Hello,

Good grief, I actually had one, or rather my dad did and I remember using it as a shooting plane as a boy/young man. I can't for the life of me remember what happened to it. It was steel though and not brass with beech handle. I remember it still being around up until my dad popped off in 2000, but it seems to have gone AWOL, I didn't sell it or anything. A shame it was a useful curiosity. We always thought it was a user made one, as we had never come across anything like it. It may have been I suppose, it had no makers marks or anything. I wish I still has it.

Mike.
 
Mike, I think you have confirmed one of the oddities about the Lancashire plane. I can't remember ever hearing of one with a commercial maker's name on it, or seeing one in a catalogue.

They are rare but not astoundingly rare - maybe a bit less common than chariot planes.

I've never seen any old textbook or article recommending them either, so I expect that they are something every woodworker can get along without, unless they had some forgotten specialist use in the cotton mills, like the roller coverer's chisel.
 
woodbrains":2yxj1z0m said:
Hello,

Good grief, I actually had one, or rather my dad did and I remember using it as a shooting plane as a boy/young man. I can't for the life of me remember what happened to it. It was steel though and not brass with beech handle. I remember it still being around up until my dad popped off in 2000, but it seems to have gone AWOL, I didn't sell it or anything. A shame it was a useful curiosity. We always thought it was a user made one, as we had never come across anything like it. It may have been I suppose, it had no makers marks or anything. I wish I still has it.

Mike.

Ouch! Still - it might turn up eventually. Interesting, because all the photos I've seen of them have brass bodies; that said, I can see no reason why the design shouldn't work perfectly well in almost any metal, even cast iron.

Andy makes a good point, too. I can't recall ever seeing one credited to a named maker, either. There's nothing to say they're a South Lancashire speciality either; they could equally well have come from Lancaster, or Preston, or Oswaldtwistle.....
 
Just from looking at it I wouldn't have guessed it would be clog-prone. There isn't much blocking the way of the escapement, and the skew should throw the shaving out.
 
Yes - after posting the last comment, it did occur to me that I'd never heard of such a problem with the LN and LV shooting planes, which are much the same thing as the Lancashire pattern, but on a larger scale. Then it dawned on me that they are intended to be used on end grain; maybe the little Lanky was intended for that use rather than the long grain rebating the blog post writer was doing? It might explain the skew blade, which does seem to be a common factor with them. Counting against that theory is that the Lanky would be light compared to the modern planes, which isn't really ideal for shooting work.
 
Hello,

All the years my dad and I owned our example, and not knowing what it actually was, we always referred to it as 'the shooting plane'. It seemed logical to us, that a plane with skewed iron projecting from the side should be used such. Now I know that it is a Lancashire pattern shoulder plane, we weren't far from the mark really. Both operations involve end grain planing in a rebate of sorts. I don't ever remember a clogging issue. The light weight wasn't a disadvantage in use as a shooting plane, as the handle put the weight of the users hand really quite close to the top of the cutter, so have a good point of effort. I never used the plane for very thick stock, though, but shooting planes, even of the massive weighty sort, are limited to thicknesses of stock of about 3/4 inch, unless the user is desperate Dan.

Mike.

Edited for spelling!
 
Thanks for that, Mike - and on reflection I'm pretty sure you're right that the intention is end-grain work, whether on tenon shoulders or on stock end I suppose is a difference without much of a distinction.

It's quite remarkable how little information there is on these planes. Salaman doesn't even mention them in the 'Dictionary of Woodworking Tools', and those I've managed to find on the net are something of a motley bunch; mostly of cast brass, some very nicely finished on the inside faces, which seems a lot of unnecessary work, one in dovetailed steel, and a couple of cast iron ones. Some of the brass ones are so similar as to suggest a commercial product with castings from the same patterns. Blades are mostly thick and about 1 1/2" wide or a bit less (as far as I can judge from photos, so don't quote me on that), with the odd one having a blade nearer Stanley/Record/etc block plane size and thickness. They all seem to have the screw swivel cap; haven't seen one with the blade wedged in, yet. But - absolutely no clues whatever about makers.
 
Hello,

When my dad got his, it must have been incomplete, or in need of some fettling. Your idea that the cutters were about 1 1/2in wide is correct, I remember ours had an uncut Stanley block plane blade fitted, I assume added by my dad. I remember the lever cap being sprayed matte black and I think the inside surfaces, too. It might have been rusty and needed some abrasive treatment. The cap screw was missing and replaced with something from the parts bin. It wasn't in as terrible condition as i make it sound here, though. I just think my dad was a bit pragmatic about restoration, he just got it to work!

Anyway, thanks to CC for the info, after all these years, now I know what the plane was. If I could just find it.......

Mike.
 
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