On the 5th July, our Charities Committee held its meeting at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, the home of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust. Our Company has supported the Hawley Trust for several years now, recognising the importance of its work preserving and documenting Sheffield’s history as a world-class manufacturer of tools and cutlery.
Ken Hawley, for whom the trust is named, was a Sheffield tool dealer and collector who built up an enormous collection of historic artefacts relating to the city’s industrial past. His most important contribution came in the 1980s and 90s, when tool manufacturing was migrating to the far east, and old-established Sheffield factories were closing down. Priceless archives of tools, production records and catalogues were being discarded – and often as builders were dumping this material into skips, Ken was climbing in to retrieve it and preserve it for posterity.
Ken Hawley died in 2014, but the trustees and volunteers continue his work to this day. The Hawley Trust has its own gallery at Kelham Island, displaying many of the items that are synonymous with the word Sheffield – and which are of course also closely linked with the history of the builders merchant trade. Moreover, the Trust’s educational programme chimes closely with the WCoBM’s educational aims – the Hawley Gallery frequently welcomes school visits, supports research into Sheffield’s industrial past, and hosts regular open-access talks on the city and the work of its tool makers.
Kelham Island museum and the Hawley Gallery are open to the public free of charge. However, if any of our members would like a guided tour of the public galleries and ‘behind the scenes’, this can be arranged. You can contact the Trust at hawleytoolcollection.com
