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Hiatt company Great Barr

W

Wendy

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Hiatt Company are manufacturers of many items including handcuffs for the police. I have been told today by a lovely guy who used to use this site that, it is to close. He doesn't want to be mentioned but he used to have an avatar that was an old english sheepdog. Some will know who I am talking about.

Here's a bit of its history.

https://www.handcuffs.org/hiatt/index.html#Introduction
 
Thank him for the info' and give him my regards please and also that I still have the 'Frog tune' on my cell phone LOL. It's so sad to hear of all these places closing down.

Pom
 
It was in the paper the other day.
They've been forced to close by so called " do gooders" demonstrating outside the factory.
Say hello to mr sheepdog.
 
Thankyou do gooders...yet another piece of history bites the dust...if I remember rightly there was a piece on the news when they were doing abit on the slave trade....it was very interesting....glad to see mr sheepdog is still keeping his eye on us..hope you are ok mr sheepdog and feeling a tad better
 
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No mention here that it is closing due to protests. Knowing BAE it is more likely they are getting rid of a non-core business to invest in their main companies much as they have done in the past. After they sold out (yes out not off) Rover they proceeded to rid themselves through management buy outs of various other companies they had bought and asset stripped.

As far as Do-gooders are concerned some of this company's products are/were truly despicable.
 
I agree Bernie despicable indeed not the sort of thing you exspect to find being manufactured in 21st Britain.
Good day Mr Sheep Dog.
 
The closure of Hiatts by BA Systems will cause a shortage of handcuffs in Police Forces, the Nylon rope makers and Plastic Tie makers are delighted!!, will they be the next target for the protestors?.
 
Len I have no problems with the handcuffs and they are certainly preferable to the nylon ties originally championed by the SA Police Forces.

However the cruder manacles and leg irons to name a few, belong in museums not as currently used by repressive governments.

I repeat I believe this has more to do with economic expediency and little if anything to do with the protests - since when did BAE take notice of such?

Also according tot he report I linked to their will be no such shortage - now I wonder how they know could it be because they already have an alternative manufacturer lined up?
 
My mom worked for Hiatts in the 1970's Perry Barr, i forgot the name of the road. She was a number of Irish girls that worked there. Peggy was one, my mom was Esther. She loved it there, a great place to work, and the workers was brill.
My mom still lives in Rocky Lane, not far from where Hiatts was.
Anyone on here remember them?
 
Pedrocut said:
There is an archived page from Sept 2014 on the BBC site that mentions more recent protests due to the firm’s involvement in making handcuffs used in Guantanamo Bay.

Click to expand...

I've just read all the posts on this thread , The only Hiatts I've ever heard of was a company that made cable clips , working for an electrical wholesaler they used to stock them various shapes for different cables with hardened nails in
 
This might be of interest - the Great Train Robbery handcuffs !
 

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thanks for the link pedro ...here a little snippet from the link although i already knew about it as william froggatt is my ancestor...i have a photo of his son thomas froggatt also mentioned in the snippet taken when he went to work for hiatts after the froggatt company sold out to them i am afraid that this is my only little bit of claim to fame :D

Froggatt. William West's 1830 Directory of Warwickshire lists William Froggatt, of 4 Court Bordesley St. Birmingham as a manufacturer of dog and horse collars and felon's iron maker. Later in the 1830s Froggatt moved to Bartholomew St. and then on to 289 Bradford Street where they remained. Ownership of the company stayed in the family and came eventually to William's grandson Thomas Froggatt, who was born in 1864.

Thomas Froggatt & Co. became Hiatt's main competitor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1937 Thomas Froggatt sold the company to Hiatt, but Froggatt continued on as employee. He finally retired in 1948 at the age of 84, when Hiatt moved to their new suburban location on Baltimore Road, Great Barr.

Thomas Froggatt was said to have been a good friend of Harry Houdini and to have supplied Houdini with many of the handcuffs and leg irons that he used in his act.

Judged by the abundance and ease of finding Froggatt cuffs today, Froggatt sold a lot of handcuffs. In particular Froggatt Plug 8 cuffs are nearly as plentiful as are Hiatt Plug 8's. Froggatt must have also been a major exporter to America, because Froggatt cuffs turn up relatively frequently on this side of the Atlantic.
 
Thought it rang a bell Lyn. I was also reading that the name sometimes only has one ‘t’ so could be referred to as Hiatt or Hiat. Seems an unusual name to me. Viv.
 
if i remember correctly there was a Hiatt Ltd on Baltimore Road in Perry Barr in the 1970s. It was just around the corner from my Grandparents house in Whitburn Avenue.
 
My Dad, Leslie Ivor Dipper worked for Hiatts as a ‘Handcuff Forger and Steel Toy Maker’ after serving his apprenticeship in the early 1930’s. He told me that although their registered address
was listed as 26 Masshouse Lane the forge was in Park Street, Digbeth to where he used to cycle from his home in Stratford Rd, Sparkhill. I have his original apprenticeship papers and they make interesting reading besides several examples of his hand forged handcuffs.

F6069CA3-41F7-4AA7-AD6F-9E3E52CE1BAA.jpeg
 
Astoness said:
thanks for the link pedro ...here a little snippet from the link although i already knew about it as william froggatt is my ancestor...i have a photo of his son thomas froggatt also mentioned in the snippet taken when he went to work for hiatts after the froggatt company sold out to them i am afraid that this is my only little bit of claim to fame :D

Froggatt. William West's 1830 Directory of Warwickshire lists William Froggatt, of 4 Court Bordesley St. Birmingham as a manufacturer of dog and horse collars and felon's iron maker. Later in the 1830s Froggatt moved to Bartholomew St. and then on to 289 Bradford Street where they remained. Ownership of the company stayed in the family and came eventually to William's grandson Thomas Froggatt, who was born in 1864.

Thomas Froggatt & Co. became Hiatt's main competitor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1937 Thomas Froggatt sold the company to Hiatt, but Froggatt continued on as employee. He finally retired in 1948 at the age of 84, when Hiatt moved to their new suburban location on Baltimore Road, Great Barr.

Thomas Froggatt was said to have been a good friend of Harry Houdini and to have supplied Houdini with many of the handcuffs and leg irons that he used in his act.

Judged by the abundance and ease of finding Froggatt cuffs today, Froggatt sold a lot of handcuffs. In particular Froggatt Plug 8 cuffs are nearly as plentiful as are Hiatt Plug 8's. Froggatt must have also been a major exporter to America, because Froggatt cuffs turn up relatively frequently on this side of the Atlantic.
Click to expand...

Is this the Thomas Froggatt ?

“Thomas Froggatt, who worked for the company for over 70 vears and made handcutts for Houdini.”

Golden years of Birmingham (1999)

3E876E69-81E4-4AC5-9405-8A74C580C245.jpeg
 
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