Chipping Hammer

Chipping hammer, no accession number on item, and no museum card found. Metal head that is missing most of its blue paint, has the words Brades, and England on the metal head. Has short wooden handle.
William Hunt bought land along what is today between Brades Road and the canal, setting up a series of small forges and furnaces to manufacture edge tools. The 1796 accounts show different departments at work here, including a converting furnace, casting shop, forge tilt and rolling mill and rent being paid to a certain Matthew Boulton for hire of a steam engine. By 1805 they were also manufacturing steel on the site. In these early days they were making hay and chaff knives, trowels, spades, hoes and edging knives, axeheads, hatchets, garden shears, wood chisels and scythes. They also supplied the steel for ramrods used in the Napoleonic wars, their edge tools accompanied expeditions to find the North West Passage and provided the bayonets for the British Army in the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign. In 1951 the company amalgamated with Nash Tyzack to form Brades Nash Tyzack Industries, using the trademarks of the Brades. In 1960 they were acquired by Spear and Jackson and by the 80s gone from the area.