The Fellows family are believed to have had an ironworks and a japanning factory in Bilston in the 1730s. Around 1800 the business moved to Pool Street Works, Pool Street, Wolverhampton where James Fellows & Son produced trays.

In 1860, two of the founders' three sons, Samuel James and Edgar Fellows joined forces and founded S. J. and E. Fellows at Vulcan Works, Graiseley Row, Wolverhampton. Both businesses are listed in Jones's Mercantile Directory for 1865 as follows:


The location of Vulcan Works. As it was in 1885.


Vulcan Works in Graiseley Row. Courtesy of Dave Burk.


The company's trademark.

 The new business went from strength to strength and produced all kinds of holloware, including marine floats and buoys, milk churns and stoves. The company won a gold medal in 1888 at an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia that commemorated Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

Samuel James Fellows died at his home, Compton Ferry, Wolverhampton, in March 1896. He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1889.

For some years the firm also had a factory on the northern side of Graiseley Row, alongside Pool Street, labelled Vulcan Works 2 on the map above. It first appears on the 1901, 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.
After the First World War the company began to produce products for the catering industry, and in 1930, established a company at Barry Dock in Glamorgan called Fellows Chamberlin Limited, to produce domestic enamelled holloware.

The Wolverhampton County Borough Directory of 1954 includes the following entry:

Fellows, S. J. & E. Limited, Stampers, Vulcan Works.

Kelly's Directory of Wolverhampton for 1962 describes S. J. & E. Fellows Limited as a holloware manufacturer, elevator bucket manufacturer, and producer of steel metal pressings in mild stainless steel, and aluminium.

In the 1960s the company rapidly expanded and had around 350 employees, but the economic depression in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in many job losses.

 


An advert from 1938.

James Fellows & Son Limited became an associate company of S. J. & E. (Holdings) Limited. As can be seen from the image above, which is from the September 1977 catalogue.


An advert from 1951.

 In 1973 the firm became part of Centreway Securities.

Today the business is called Fellows Manufacturing and is part of the Rical Group.

The firm is still on the same site, on the southern side of Graiseley Row, where a wide range of products are produced, including presswork, sheet metalwork fabrications, high quality deep drawn presswork, progression and conventional pressings for commercial catering equipment, automotive parts, parts for the M.O.D., parts for the electronics industry, and all types of fabrications through to assembly, including powder coating, painting, plating, and galvanising.

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