COME AND TAKE A 'SELFIE' WITH THE 'LITTLE MESTER' DURING HERITAGE OPEN DAYS - 8TH-17TH SEPTEMBER

NEW 'LITTLE MESTER' SCULPTURE ON DISPLAY

This incredible new sculpture by local scrap metal artist, Jason Heppenstall, and students from Sheffield University Technical College was made as part of our latest Lottery Heritage Funded project.

Click here for more information

Join us for a SHEFFIELD CUTLERY QUIZ on Wednesday, 15th November

7.30pm at Kelham Island Museum

Have fun matching various items of cutlery and flatware with foods and functions that they were intended for in Victorian times.

Please book your place via Eventbrite (£1 per person plus booking fee)

TALKS AND EXHIBITIONS

Talks

Exploring the Hawley Photo Archive - Every Picture Tells a Story
Wednesday, 22nd November at 2.00 p.m.

A brief look at how the Hawley's photographic archive augments and embellishes the wider collection - images of the places, processes and people of the tool and cutlery industry in Sheffield over the past century or so. Click here to book your place.

The Invention, Development and use of the Bessemer Converter
Wednesday, 13th December at 2.00 p.m.

Henry Bessemer was a prolific inventor but his most famous invention was a furnace for converting high carbon pig iron into wrought iron and steel. Click here to book your place.

New Temporary Exhibitions

THE POWER OF PRINT
This new temporary exhibition aims to illustrate how printing processes have been used to produce catalogues and improve package labelling. Click here for more information

THE STORY OF PEN & POCKET KNIVES
A look at the evolution of the folding knife into the pocket knife we know today. Click here for more information

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR DIGITAL RESOURCES

A digital knife archive has been compiled for the Name on a Knife Blade Project, plus we have a Youtube channel and a variety of resources to download - click on the links below.

The 'Name on a Knife Blade' database

Our 'You Tube' channel - New films added!!

Downloads

The Hawley Collection is an internationally important material record of tool making, cutlery manufacture and silversmithing from Sheffield, together with complementary material from Britain and the rest of the world.

This collection is unique in that it combines finished artefacts and work in progress to illustrate how things were made. Together with published catalogues, archival material, pictures, photographs, tapes and films, it records the development of many of Sheffield's manufacturing processes and products and the skills of the workpeople involved.

Ken Hawley

For over fifty years he collected the tools, the 'tools that made the tools', catalogues, photographs and information connected with the Sheffield tool, cutlery and silversmithing industries. During his working life, including thirty years selling tools in his own shop in Sheffield, he acquired an unrivalled knowledge about Sheffield's industrial heritage.

It was Ken Hawley's wish that the Hawley Collection stay in Sheffield to provide exhibitions, displays and information for the people of Sheffield and visitors to the city. He saw the Collection as a tribute to the craftsmanship, skills and excellence displayed over the centuries by Sheffield firms and workpeople.

The Hawley Gallery at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield opened in 2010 as the first permanent display space for the Hawley Collection.

Visit the Gallery to see the displays and exhibitions and learn more about Sheffield's industrial heritage at one of our events. You can investigate the history of Sheffield tool making by using the collection for your research. If you know something about Sheffield's toolmaking history please share your knowledge with us.