A Gazetteer of Lock and Key Makers

JAMES GIBBONS LTD

by Frank Spittle

1.  Introduction

I worked at James Gibbons for many years in the 1950s and 60s before I left to set up my own business.  

I have preserved some old photos and pictures and it is with great pleasure that I show them here, with just a few of my memories of a place that fed my children and gave me so many friends that have endured for over fifty years. I hope that people will enjoy reading on the Internet the history of this part of our industrial heritage, seeing a photo that they never knew existed of a family member and learning of the esteem that they were held in.  They helped to put the "City" on the face of Wolverhampton in the Millennium.  They came from all over, from Bilston, Hurst Hill, Wednesfield, anywhere within walking or bike ride distance as bus trips were, even then, expensive to one who had to watch his pennies.  They came to join a work force that grew and grew – and then slowly died because of cheap labour and products from overseas and indeed, on occasions, unnecessary strikes by union membership that came to Gibbons later than most factories in that area of the town.


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