HISTORY&HERITAGE
SPONSORED BY SKS
DAVENPORT BURGESS - THE GENERATION GAME
The Davenport Burgess of today is renowned as the
country’s market leader in the key blank and manufacture
and wholesale industry, supplying a full range of keys, key
blanks, key cutting machines and a complementary range
of locks and associated hardware, from its purpose-built
office and warehouse on Wednesfield Road, Willenhall.
The origins of Davenport-Burgess
can, however, be traced back to
early generations of the Davenport
family, who lived in Wednesfield,
Wolverhampton in the mid19th Century.
At this time Wednesfield was well known
for both key and trap making. All kinds
of traps were made there, including
“mantraps” which were mainly exported
,
to Africa.
Although traps were big business, keymaking was also prominent but existed
as a “cottage” industry and was often a
secondary occupation. The key-making
industry in Wednesfield catered for the
needs of the lock industry, which was
mainly based in the neighbouring town of
Willenhall. As the Willenhall lock industry
grew with the likes of Josiah Parkes,
Union, Chubb etc., so, too did the key
industry.
The Davenport family, who were known
as publicans in the area, produced keys in
the outhouse of the pub they owned. In
those days, everything was made by hand
using simple hand tools but even today in
its modern form, Davenport-Burgess still
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THE SEP/OCT 2013 ISSUE
SPONSORED BY ADVANCED KEYS
receives a healthy demand for duplicates
of these old keys.
The traditional occupation of key making
continued throughout the Davenport
family but it was not until after the Second
World War that the firm of H. Davenport
& Sons began to develop into the type of
organisation we know today.
The firm was located in a small workshop
behind a terraced house in Victoria Road,
Wednesfield. During the post war years,
production of malleable iron keys and key
blanks was expanded to include exports
to Australia and South Africa. However,
with the increasing demand for locks
and keys, faster methods of production
were needed, and during the 1950s
the fabricated welded steel blank was
developed. This is now the main method
of production for the common mortice
key, which is particularly popular here in
the UK.
At the same time, the market for
‘cylinder’ or ‘Yale’ type keys was
increasing, so the firm continued to
develop throughout the 1960’s, widening
the range of keys and key blanks on offer.
But the 1970s was the most significant
decade in the history of DavenportBurgess, for several reasons. In 1978,
Steve and Jim Davenport took control
of Davenport Burgess from their father,
Stanley Davenport and made the decision
to become a distributor for Dominion
Lock of Montreal,
who was, at that time,
the world’s largest
manufacturer of
cylinder key blanks.
Davenport’s also
became the first
distributor for J & A
Engineering of London,
the originators of Jakey
key cutting machines.
It was around this time that Davenport’s
Ltd had outgrown the extended workshop
in Victoria Road.
The firm then acquired the business
of B. Burgess & Sons Ltd, the family
business of current Sales Manager, Matt’s
grandmother, in Temple Bar, Willenhall.
The existing premises were extended and
the two companies moved in together and
began trading as Davenport-Burgess. B.
Burgess and Sons Ltd specialised in lock
distribution and therefore complemented
the traditional key and key blank business
of H. Davenport & Sons Ltd.
By the end of the 1980s, DavenportBurgess had outgrown the premises at
Temple Bar and a large piece of derelict
land a few hundred yards away in
Wednesfield Road was acquired. Since
January 1st 1990, Davenport-Burgess
has been supplying from these premises,
continuing to move with the times and
adapt to a changing market.
Both families are still very much active
in the business, with Jim and Steve
Davenport as co-Chairmen and sons
Andy and Matt Davenport as Procurement
Manager and Sales Manager respectively.
But in 2008, the business appointed its
first non-family Managing Director, Tony
Wright. Tony has a strong background
in business and IT. and has been
instrumental in improving processes,
making the company’s activities more
time-efficient.
More recently the business has
embarked on a skilled based recruitment
drive to ensure it maintains a skilled
workforce, enabling it to preserve the
traditional skills and craftsmanship of its
long heritage, while keeping abreast of
modern techniques.
www.davenport-burgess.com
To read more, visit www.locksmithjournal.co.uk