From 1839 until 1939 the company Barringer, Wallis & Manners & Co. Ltd. was located in Mansfield, Staffordshire. The original firm of Barringer & Co. started in 1830. They were millers and producers of mustard packed in tins.By 1870 they were making lithographed fancy tin boxes for the biscuit and confectionery trades. In 1889, they became Barringer, Wallis, & Manners and by 1892, they were printing and making tins for themselves and for other firms. In 1914, they started to make clock-work and other toys.
They produced clockwork aeroplanes, train sets with button wheels, lorries, buses, racing cars, and clockwork walking toys as well as pillar boxes, cash boxes, and stage coaches. They made toys for Burnett Ltd, notably the 'Ubilda' series. The work of tying the different parts on to perforated cardboard was done by deaf and dumb girls.
Subject ID: 28916
MoreFrom 1839 until 1939 the company Barringer, Wallis & Manners & Co. Ltd. was located in Mansfield, Staffordshire. The original firm of Barringer & Co. started in 1830. They were millers and producers of mustard packed in tins.By 1870 they were making lithographed fancy tin boxes for the biscuit and confectionery trades. In 1889, they became Barringer, Wallis, & Manners and by 1892, they were printing and making tins for themselves and for other firms. In 1914, they started to make clock-work and other toys.
They produced clockwork aeroplanes, train sets with button wheels, lorries, buses, racing cars, and clockwork walking toys as well as pillar boxes, cash boxes, and stage coaches. They made toys for Burnett Ltd, notably the 'Ubilda' series. The work of tying the different parts on to perforated cardboard was done by deaf and dumb girls.
In 1939, Barringer, Wallis & Manners were absorbed into the The Metal Box empire. At the end of World War II they entered into an agreement with Chad Valley to manufacture tinplate toys for them, Burnett Ltd having ceased trading.
The tools for making Burnett's toys were taken over and new designs added, most of the toys listed in Barringer, Wallis & Manners archives appear in Chad Valleys Export Catalogues for 1946 to 1949.
In 1982, Mr J A Whiston, the Branch Training Officer of Metal Box, Mansfield, interviewed several former employees, one aged 95, another who started work in 1925 at the age of fourteen. Both remember making the first remote control car, clockwork train sets with button wheels, monoplanes for a firm called Hughes, pull-along buses, lorries, stage coaches, and a Royal Coach for the coronation of George VI in 1937 for the Crawford Biscuit Company, and for Burnetts, Ubilda construction sets, racing cars, and money-boxes. The pensioners also said they made walking dolls, spinning, and humming tops.
From old files in the company's archives Mr Whiston also extracted the two following lists. The first, from a file entitled 'Toys' and with the date 11 November 1927 on the inside front cover, gives details of the toys made for Chad Valley until 1969 when the tool sets for the last toy tops, globes, and pile-ups were sent to Hall & Lane of Birmingham. The tools for some other Chad Valley toys were scrapped between 1951 and 1955. The second file marked 'Advertising Novelties', list the little sweet containers, 'penny novelties' made for Batgers Clarnico, Pascall, and Rowntrees.
Subject ID: 28916
Subject ID: 28916