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
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.