Spaffords Tool maker, Guernsey/Colver Road Heeley.

[Only me]

Can anyone remember Spaffords the tool makers that stood on the site where Halfords and Comet etc is now just off Queens rd ? It was a fair size as it covered most of that block. It would be intresting to know the history of the place, I think it was demolished around 1980, did they actually move elsewhere? I seem to remember it also said something like Barker and May above the main gate but could be wrong.

[Guest Gramps]

Just in case Only me should return to this topic...

From Mary Walton's History of the Parish of St. Barnabas

A. SPAFFORD & CO

George Barker, James Mitchell and Henry J. England had started their business in 1871, making "machine, reaping, turnip etc. knives" in Walker Street By 1886 James Mitchell had withdrawn from the group and Barker and England continued at Havelock Works, Moorfields (in the Gibraltar Street area) and also at Leadmill Road. (That their works bore the name Havelock is a coincidence, for Havelock Bridge had that name well before the arrival of Barker and England.) For Barker and England business prospered, and in 1907 they found new premises in Colver Road, bought from Foxon, Haggie & Co.

There was little further change until their fortunes faltered in the "slump" and in 1932, again through the voluntary liquidation arrangement, they sold to A. Spafford & Co. Abraham Spafford was a member of the firm of Ibbotson, Peace & Co. and formed a partnership with Samuel Peace in 1856. Two years later this partnership was dissolved and so it was that in 1858 the firm of Abraham Spafford & Co. came into being, with works at Neepsend Lane, known as the Merchant Works. Abraham lived at Hillfoot. The firm at that time manufactured a huge range of products, from table knives to scythes, from saws to files, and with a sprinkling of agricultural machine parts.

The firm had two moves — one, in 1864, to Imperial Works at Shalesmoor where Abraham was joined by Frederick, his eldest son, and later by his other son, Edward. The other move came in 1878, to premises in Brown Street which kept the "Imperial Works" name. The first signs of a family firm were emerging for although Frederick had no sons, all five of Edward's sons were to join the steadily-expanding firm.

By the year of their purchase of the firm of Barker & England and its premises in 1932, Spaffords were specialising in agricultural machine parts, with a little machine knife manufacture. Barker & England were making mainly machine knives, with a little agricultural interest. So the two firms' activities integrated admirably. The Brown Street premises were sold, some of the machinery from there supplementing that at Colver Road, and Spaffords settled in to continue their development into one of the country's leading manufacturers of agricultural machine parts. They retained the name of Havelock Works for sales made under the name of Barker & England — principally of industrial machine knives.

By the end of the Second World War the third generation of Spaffords were guiding the firm's progress, with the eldest son Claud as Chairman; Roland, second-eldest and father of the present Chairman, was Sales Director, and Norman, Cecil and Arnold looked after Works, Administration and Finance respectively. At that time Claud Spafford lived at Mosborough Hall.

The firm are proud of being a family firm, feeling it to be an advantage especially from the employees' point of view — they are made as far as possible to feel part of the family. At the present time Mr. Peter Spafford is the Company Chairman, Deryck B. Spafford and Michael T. Spafford, both sons of Norman, mentioned above, are respectively Managing Director and Sales Director, and the Field Sales Director is Mr. Leslie Spink, who is a son-in-law of Mr. Claud Spafford. The Works Director, Mr. George W. Ford, is the only member of the Board outside the family since the 1930s. The firm expands steadily. Most of its market comprises makers of spares for the agricultural trade (ploughs, cultivators, harvesters and mowers) in this country, but through them (in addition to 20% direct export) many of its products must find their way into every corner of the world.

When I was very young, - in the late 1940s I knocked about with a lad whose father worked at Spaffords. They lived on Highfield place. Ring any bells ?

There is a catalogue of their file products in the Local Studies library and also a catalogue of their agricultural tools on sale here

http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/books.htm

A Spafford & Co. Ltd Sheffield 1968 (Item 152) Agricultural Catalogue

[Only me]

Thanks Gramps much appreciated, thats a great bit of history on the place. Sorry the 1940s is a little before my time. We lived quite locally and my dad worked at spaffords during the 1970s. He often worked Sundays when no one else would as he had his own keys. On these occasions i would often follow him into Spaffords to have a nosey round. As a young lad at the time it was a real adventure, the place seemed MASSIVE with all its different parts. I can even recall they had their own vault similar to a banks, so i imagine it was a thriving business at some point. Thanks again for the info.

[SteveHB]

[lysander]

Back in the late 50s/early 60s I worked in Sales at the Tinsley Rolling Mills Co.Ltd. Spafford's were good customers and I was often in daily contact with them.I remember their buyer was a fellow called Schinzil.

Most of the companies whose catalogues are displayed b y timelesstools were also customers....They are nearly all gone now, being unable to compete against cheap products from abroad and also by being unable to buy the, sometimes specialist, steel products which BSC wasn't interested or was incapable of supplying.