Argyle & Co.

[Jonathan Love]

I am British but live in Sweden now. I regularly use a fine sturdy garden fork which I inherited from father who in turn inherited it from his uncle. It is marked with " Argyle & Co Birmingham" and also 1891 which I assume is its production date. Out of curiosity I "Googled" this company but could surprisingly not find anything about it. The only "hits" were sale advertisements for other antique tools by the same company. Can anybody give me some links to any information about the company's history?

 

[mw0njm.]

 

[pjmburns]

This is from the 1940 Kelly's directory. I could not find them in 1892 directory

 

[Jonathan Love]

Thankyou for your prompt response. That's a good start; it at least provides an initial minimum time span for the company's existence. I'm not really sure why I'm interested but one thing is that these days, when so many things are shoddy, I get so much satisfaction from using a tool that is so functional, rugged and well built and wonder about the world and times in which it was created. Another point of interest is another small stamp on the back of the blade that looks a bit like a chinese pictogram. It made me wonder whether there was a good degree of handiwork during production and that each craftsman perhaps applied his own identifying punch mark. No doubt there are somewhere some company records archived but I really don't expect to find out so very much.
As a postscript I can note that last year, after over a hundred years, the handle finally snapped. I cut and planed a new one myself from ash I saved from a neighbours tree. Hopefully this will allow this piece of Victorian craftmanship to live yet another generation in the hands of one of my children.

Jonathan

 

[pjmburns]

I noticed some of the items advertised for sale stated handles had been replaced.
I wonder if the company was from elsewhere and moved to Birmingham in 1930s?

 

[mikejee]

Argyle & Co first appear in directories as shovel makers in 1912 (not there in 1910 edition ) at 198 Darmouth St, between A & F Parkes & Co,, shovel edge tool makers and Vaughan Bros, edge tool makers, they being next to Delta metals. By 1921 they have added edge tools to their repertoire.. They disappear between 1940 and 1943, and appear to be absorbed by Parkes whose Coldfield Works are shown covering the whole area. The c1913 map below shows where I believe the works must have been in pink. Nothing is shown in hte area, but the Coldfield (Parkes) works is first then this space, then a garden tool works then DElta metals. this fits with the order Parkes, Argyle, Vaughan, Delta.

 

[Jonathan Love]

Thank you so much for a very comprehensive reply.
Firstly, I think i must perhaps accept that the stamp on the fork is a serial number not a date.
Secondly, I find it fascinating to see (and try to imagine in 3D) this extraordinary urban landscape with all those different but associated factories tightly packed together in the midst of rows of houses and schools together with an Inn and a malthouse. Having been brought up in a small Essex town, such an "industrial town village", almost self-supporting, within a vast city, is something I am not at all familiar with. I did a while live in Newcastle on Tyne but it seemed to be of a very different character. Here in Sweden, with it's greater area, small population and widely spread resources (minerals, water etc.) there is nowhere that really compares. (Except perhaps w.r.t. weaving mill towns.) There arose multitudes of small self-contained industrial communities,in the midst of forests, but for a comparison there would have to be a nail factory in the midst of the Cotswolds.
Perhaps now that I have a picture of my fork's origins I can happily let this thread rest. Just by coincidence my eldest (Swedish) daughter is at this moment in Birmingham on a study visit to one of the hospitals. As she is the only one who has so far grown any vegetables she may be the one to inherit the fork. Perhaps then in the future there will at least be one person in Sweden who, whilst digging up a carrot in a forested landscape, will be reflecting on a hundred year old Birmingham industrial community.

With kind regards Jonathan