The Early Years

The advert opposite is from the 1902 Wolverhampton Red Book and lists many of the company's products.

The works in 1871.

Until the early 1950s the company was owned by the Lloyd Family and it is believed that they were the founders.

In the early years domestic holloware must have been produced on the site because a number of frying pans, each bearing the name “The Crown Stamping Company” were used in the works as tack pans, until the 1950s.

Steen & Company’s directory of 1884 lists four nail makers in Wolverhampton:

The Crown Nail Company
The Patent Tip & Horseshoe Company
Messrs. Neve & Company
Danks, Walker & Company.

The works in 1901.

The Company was run by Paul Bedford Elwell who took out a patent for nail making machinery in 1876. The patent is for a low-down cut-nail machine that used a peculiar oscillating feed arrangement for the steel strip. Instead of turning the strip over in-between cuts, the strip moved through an arc and each cut was parallel to the front of the machine. 

The oldest machine that was in store at the works used an identical arrangement and so is likely to be an Elwell machine. This machine and the one below have been saved by the Black Country Living Museum and will be on display in a few years time.

The company was probably founded by John Lloyd and so he must have been much older than his wife, who lived until the mid 1940s. He had presumably died before 1902 because the family is listed under the name of Rose Lloyd in the 1902 Wolverhampton Red Book. The two children, Jack and Harry attended Rugby School. They were very different, Jack being an extrovert and Harry an introvert who kept himself to himself.

The two brothers took over the running of the company when their mother retired. Harry Lloyd ran the office and his brother Jack, an exceptional engineer, ran the factory. Jack enjoyed mixing with the workforce but was a strict disciplinarian. Rose never allowed her sons to marry, they were both dedicated to the company and spent as much time as they could there. Jack’s only luxury was his Bentley car, of which he was justifiably proud. Once a year he would take a week’s holiday and drive off somewhere. He would always return after about five days because the factory was his life and he couldn’t stay away.

The surviving seal on the Elwell nail machine.

Nail production ceased in about 1910 and didn’t start again until 1986. At the time too many nails were being produced and in order to protect manufacturers and control prices, a form of rationalisation was introduced. Many companies, including the Crown Nail Company were paid a certain amount each year not to produce nails and so only tacks were made. Seals were placed on the moving parts of the nail machines to ensure that they were not used. The Elwell machine that was in store still carries its seal.

It was a closed-shop and in order to appease the feeders Cyril had to leave, otherwise they would have come out on strike. He left the Crown Nail Company and began an engineering apprenticeship at Culwell Works in Wolverhampton.

Jack Lloyd must have taken a liking to Cyril and regretted his departure, because two years later he asked him to return to the company and join him in the fitting shop. This was acceptable to the feeders and he returned in 1911 to continue his training under Jack. Cyril was known as Sid at the works and he and Jack became close friends.

The 1914 Wolverhampton Red Book lists two nail and tack makers:

The Crown Nail Company, Commercial Road
G. Horobin, 76 Lower Villiers Street

The Crown Nail Company is also listed under general stampers, and so stamped products were still produced in 1914. 

During the First World War the company supplied all of the tacks that were used to hold the fabric to the wooden framework of the early military aircraft, which proved to be extremely lucrative for the Lloyd family. During the war Cyril Haydon went into the army where he worked in a field ambulance and was a batman to the Colonel. He didn't enjoy his new role and when he heard that the army was looking for engineers for its workshops, he applied and after easily passing a test became an army engineer. After the war Cyril returned to the Crown Nail Company and continued to assist Jack Lloyd in the fitting shop.

The 50h.p. motor driving the overhead line shafting.

Expansion

In the 1920s tack production centred around a number of low-down machines. Towards the end of the decade the Lloyd brothers decided to expand production and greatly increase the number of machines. They purchased an American Blanchard and a British low down machine which were typical of the day, but Jack was not satisfied with them. 

An American Blanchard machine.

With his in mind he fully equipped an enlarged fitting shop, where he and Cyril designed and built the new tack machines. Many of the parts were made in-house, but such things as castings had to be brought-in.

Two types of machine were developed; a standard machine and a heavy duty machine for longer tacks. Many of the parts including the tools were fully interchangeable between the machines, which proved to be very successful. Reliability was foremost in Jack’s mind. For simplicity they used plain phosphor bronze bearings (bushes) where possible. All of the bearings in each machine were of this type except for a pair of big double self-lining roller bearings, which were brought in to fit the machines. This technique has worked well because none of the bearings have had to be replaced for many years, only an occasional machining has been necessary during normal preventative maintenance.

Jack was extremely pleased with Cyril's contribution in the development of the new machines and rewarded him with a large toy car for his young son. They became firm friends and Jack and Cyril would go together to visit other companies. Jack even gave Cyril a suit to wear for these occasions.

In the foreground is a keg containing a supply of steel strips. The finished tacks are collected from the pan on the right.

An old photograph showing the machines in operation.

The smaller machines could produce 280 tacks a minute and the larger machines 240 tacks a minute.

The first machine went into production on 30^th November, 1931 and was set up by Mr. T. Hitch.

The machines were built as follows:

If one of the feeders wanted to go to the toilet she couldn’t leave her machines until the spare feeder took over. This was done to maintain production. The feeders were paid a production bonus, but not the spare feeder who was on a lower salary. The bonus was calculated from the number of tacks produced and was a few pence per 100,000. When the tacks left the machines they were put into pans and each girl’s output was weighed twice a week. Each tack was made to a specific weight to ensure that the customer had a guaranteed number of tacks per lb.

As well as the feeders there were setters. A setter would look after 7 to 10 machines and keep a close eye on them, because in those days the tools had to be taken out and reground frequently due to the inferior quality of the steel.