Charles Henry Pinson Snr was born in Willenhall in 1846 and set up as a lock latch and key maker. He is known to have been working in 1876 at 23 Cannon Street and in 1888 in Moat Street.  In the 1881 census return Charles lived at 2 Moat Street and is listed as a padlock maker, employing 6 men and 6 boys.  He had two sons, William Morley (b 1873) and Charles Henry jnr (b Cannon Street 1875), who almost certainly would have worked for their father.

By the time Charles Henry Pinson jnr was 21 years of age he had established his own business, C.H. Pinson Junior.  The "Junior" was to avoid confusion with his father.  In 1913 Charles junior purchased the firm of John Minors (q.v.) in Union Street and when his father died in the same year he took control of his business interests.  From then on the company address seems to have been Union Street.  In 1916 he bought a controlling interest in the firm of Beddow and Sturmey.  In 1919 he was elected to the Willenhall Urban District Council, he became a local JP and he died in 1934. The business was incorporated into Heenan Beddows and Sturmey (q.v.) in 1937. (ref. Street Names of Willenhall)

Between 1895 and 1901 a number of patents (12361, 16064, 24546) were taken out by E. Pinson and also F. W. Pinson trading as E Pinson.

Enoch Pinson (1840-1900) was the grandfather of Mrs R B Stone, "Dunley", Bovey Tracey, Newton Abbot, Devon. TQ13 9PW. (She wrote to the Lock Museum in 1995)

The greater proportion of their output was the manufacture of brass pin tumbler padlocks.

This letterhead (provided by Trevor Dowson) is dated 1958.  The directors are given as B.B.Pinson and R.I.Pinson; and they not only make locks and keys and hasps and staples, but also metal smallwares and they undertake light engineering.

THOMAS POOLE AND SONS,  EZEKIEL LANE,  SHORT HEATH,  WILLENHALL

WILLIAM POOLE, COPPICE LANE, WILLENHALL

Originally the business was started by Levi Poole, a master keysmith, in 1860 in Swan Lane (Ezekiel Lane) and then later run by his two sons, Thomas (b 1867) and William (b 1866).  At some point the brothers split up and started their own businesses under their own names. William Poole had a key works in a large wooden building behind his home in Coppice Lane, near its junction with Mill Lane.

William died on the 23 May 1930 while travelling on a bus or tram between Walsall and Willenhall, while taking a parcel of keys to a customer.  The business was left to his wife and later to her sister.  It was eventually sold to A & E Squire in the 1940s, who used the premises as a small tool room.

Thomas Poole and Sons was later run by William and Howard, the sons of Thomas, until they retired and sold the business to Keys of Steel Ltd (q.v.) in 1979.

They specialised in the supply of cast iron keys and blanks for padlocks and cabinet locks.

Specialist in pad, cabinet, brass rim and mortice locks.  In 1953/1987 were in Deans Road. Partner's Melvin Pitt and Mike Watkins (died early 1996).  Later moved to new premises at Purbrook Road, East Park Industrial Estate, Wolverhampton.  Taken over by Paveford Ltd (owner Mr Vaughan), a company on the same industrial estate, on 1^st May 1997.

In August 2001 the company was being offered round the trade for sale.

"As early as the International Exhibition held in London in 1862, Messrs Cyrus Price and Co., first placed their manufactures in open competition with the world's leading makers, where the excellent qualities of their Holdfast and fire-resisting safes and patent locks gained the prize medal awarded for new and special improvements. In 1869 this success was repeated at Wolverhampton, and was followed by an award of the only prize medal at Cardiff in 1888, and a gold medal for second order of merit at Melbourne, 1888-89". 

In the rear are spacious smiths' forge, safe-making shop, locksmiths' and paint shops, with large store for the steel and iron used in construction."

Then some of the company's products get a mention:  "In their latest type of "Conqueror" and "Eclipse" safes, we were enabled to realise the high stage of perfection attained by the firm in their most recent improvements, in which are embodied all details of construction best calculated to render them impregnable against' burglarious attacks. We were also shown their Fire- Resisting 212 degree book safes, with patent solid hardened steel and drill-proof doors, strong rooms, doors, and frames, and smaller receptacles possessing equally efficient qualities. 

This large transfer is in the Lock Museum.  Note that, under the large lettering of "Cyrus Price and Co", smaller lettering reads:  "Proprietors: Price Industrial Securities Ltd."  This must be a subsidiary company but its nature is unknown.

"In the lock department a noteworthy speciality is the patent prize medal unpickable locks and street door latches, the invention of the late Mr. Cyrus Price. Commenting on this improvement we may quote the following extract from the Birmingham Daily Gazette in dealing with the subject:- "The security of the new lock may technically be said to consist of a double lever 'reflection' bolt, standing against either side of the keyhole, which bolt, upon the introduction of a false key or pick, not only prevents the lifting of the levers (which is required before the main bolt can be drawn back) by the action of a bolt-pin which slides into one side of the levers, but with the same action it effectually bolts the bolt itself. The patentee claims for his useful invention that the principle renders it almost impossible for the lock to get out of order with ordinary wear and usage." 

"Other locks manufactured by the firm comprise the "Champion" detector locks and night latches, cabinet, rim, and mortice locks and bank locks, most of which are made in sets with a "master key" to pass the whole. 

"Before leaving this department our attention was invited to the firm's First Class Quadruple Extra Strong Holdfast double fire-resisting, drill, wedge and crowbar-resisting safe, with massive doors 1 in. thick, intersected with hardened drill-proof steel, hung on massive hinges, to shoot large bolts all round, large dovetails in the doors, cut from the solid to prevent wedging, for the use of bankers, pawnbrokers, and others requiring to store bullion, plate and other valuables. A glance of [sic] this ponderous stronghold would, we should imagine, deter the boldest burglar from his nefarious design even when equipped with the best tools employed by exponents of the "cracksman's" handicraft".

The review then summaries some of the many letters the company had received about instances where their safes had resisted burglars, fires and other attacks, including "the great fire at Beattie's Drapery Stores, Wolverhampton" in 1897.   And an "almost unique experience may be told of a safe supplied by this firm to Mr. William Jones, of Sand Quay, Belfast. In this case the attack was made upon the safe in question by three burglars, who, being baffled in their attempt on the "Holdfast" coolly proceeded to convey it to a barge for transmission to a place where their operations could be continued with greater security. During this performance the gang, owing to some alarm, consigned the safe to the water, from which it was subsequently rescued, and despite the duration of the immersion the contents upon examination were found to be comparatively uninjured."

This advert, from an unknown source, refers to the company being almost a century old and so should date from the 1930s.  It refers to "12 corner bent steel safes".  Can anyone explain the "12 corner" reference? By this time they are also advertising strong room doors, deed chests, and "sliding or hinged steel partition or party wall doors of all kinds", suggesting a widening of their range. They also say that the safes are "fitted with Cyrus Price's own patent solid lever locks", suggesting that they made their own, unlike many safe makers who bought in the locking mechanism.

Details of the firms history after this review are not known at present but eventually the business was acquired by James Gibbons (qv) in the 1930s.

GEORGE PRICE, CLEVELAND SAFE AND LOCK WORKS,  CLEVELAND STREET,  WOLVERHAMPTON

Read the history of George Price

 

W.H.PRITCHARD,  NEACHELLS LANE,  WEDNESFIELD,  WOLVERHAMPTON

Manufacturers of a special two lever lock, specially made for fitting into a cabinet/chest/box they make.  Had a factory in Wolverhampton.  Were taken over by Richards and Ross Ltd on the 4^th January 1989 and production moved to their Neachells Lane site.  Richards and Ross Ltd is an engineering company that had been established in Wednesfield from the 1930s.