History of Locks
Just a small part of original serial number ledgers and
Board minuet books from the main 19th/early 20th century
safe makers; all to be digitised for ease of research.
Out of the blue we were
approached from the family of
Peter Frima, the Dutch police
commissioner responsible
for the training academy. He
had built up a large reference
collection of locking devices.
The scope of the collection
was impressive with items
dating from 2nd century
to early post WWII years;
some 3500 items. Initially
the family wanted to donate
the collection to the Dutch
Heritage department but they
declined, one reason given
was on the grounds that the
provenance of the individual
items was unknown; in
other words if the building
the lock was used on or the
back stories recorded they
might have been accepted.
Eventually Titia Frima, eldest
daughter of Peter Frima,
learnt of our passion for the
subject and I was invited
to Holland for discussions
on the future of her father’s
collection – well two or three
trips later the decision was
made that the collection
should be preserved within
our collection. This collection
also was received with a
large amount of paperwork,
a bonus when writing up the
artefacts.
For many years the collection
has been steadily growing
keeping me busy displaying
the items; the premises in
Bournemouth beginning to
reach capacity. Fortunately we
had for many years exhibited
part of the collection at the
60
MLA EXPO’s and when the
Master Locksmiths Association
relocated to much larger
premises an invitation to create
a Heritage Room was offered
which was readily accepted.
This means that the locks of
the past are made available
to a wider audience. It also
means that the items on display
can be rotated between the
Bournemouth and Rugby
displays with always something
new to see.
No sooner than the MLA
Heritage Room became
public, an approach from
Fordingbridge Museum for a
display of Chubb locks was
accepted. Fordingbridge is
the birthplace of the Chubb
brothers Jerimiah and
Charles. Again a HoL display
is Permanently featured within
Fordingbridge Museum.
Gunnebo, the then
keepers of the Aubin Trophy,
underwent a restructuring and
the highly secure Heritage
Room was to become its
new home. A special secure
cabinet was commissioned
by HoL where it’s proudly
prominently displayed and
in its present location is
accessible to a much wider
audience.
Basil Shannon, the last
‘Q’ of Hong Kong, donated
his training collection of
combination and other locks
to the cause. After his role in
Hong Kong he returned to
Ireland where he carried on
his locksmithing interests; a
pair of locks, a Barron and a
Part of the MLA-HoL Heritage room with the
Aubin Lock Trophy promantly displayed.
Denison from Cooltain House
in the Irish Republic was
amongst those passed to us.
The HoL Archive is fast
becoming a significant part
of our collection. A large
collection of books catalogues
and other sales material has
recently been supplemented
by original ledgers, minuet
books and serial number
books from the main British
safe makers such as Milner,
Tann, Chatwood, Chatwood
Milner, Hobbs Hart and Chubb.
Much of the safe serial number
records are on micro film as is
some of the Stanton material.
Our archive is being indexed
in much the same way as the
LMA (London Metropolitan
Archive) has indexed part of
the Chubb Collection. We will
place copies of these indexes
in the Heritage Room in Rugby
together with other reference
material.
With so much archive
material, particularly micro
film records, a digitising
programme has been set up
to record as much of our trade
as possible in a custom built
database (our own private
cloud) which will help, when
writing, to bring the artefacts
to life with their provenance
and backstories. Incidentally
locksmiths wanting to ID and/
or date British safes of the
makers mentioned above
simply email me the serial
number and a picture of the
safe when I will be pleased to
look up the records.
The preservation of our
trade and its artefacts has
always been a priority for me
and certainly the writing here
and elsewhere seems to have
been well receive. I wonder
what I will be writing here, I
wonder what achievements
w have been made, to the
passion of preserving the
lock/locksmith world ten years
from now…
Brian Morland, curator of
the Heritage Collection of
locks and keys, welcomes
comments and corrections
on historical aspects of
locks and keys. Brian can be
contacted by email:
[email protected]
JAN/FEB 2020
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