Made in England
20th May 2013
I’ve had a bit of a ‘Made In England’ weekend with a visit to the John Smedley factory shop in Derbyshire to stock up on knitwear. The garments are still made at Lea Mills which was founded in 1784, making it the oldest working factory in the world!
As it’s not too far away I also called at the David Mellor Design museum, factory and shop and was invited on a tour of the purpose built circular factory in which all the cutlery is made. It was great to see all the machinery and tools, with the cutlery in various stages of production. I took lots of photos of the workshop (feeling a bit like a Victorian industrial spy) which, despite some serious bits of very heavy machinery, is actually on a very human scale with traditional tools neatly arranged and tactile wooden boxes with stacks of cutlery ready to be finished and boxed up.
Now for some pictures of boxes and spoons (and spoons in boxes)…
