NEW EXHIBITION

SHEFFIELD TREASURE

Celebrating 200 Years of Excellence in Cutlery Making

JANUARY - JULY 2023

This new exhibition in the foyer of Kelham Island Museum launches the latest Hawley Collection Lottery Heritage Fund project focusing on the pen and pocket knives in the collection. Click here for more information

TALKS IN 2023

File Making: exploring a great Sheffield industry in precision working
Wednesday, 3rd May 2023, 2.00 p.m. at Kelham Island Museum
This is the rescheduled talk that was postponed from 2022.
Click here to book your place

The Story of Sheffield Pen and Pocket Knives Part 1
Wednesday, 28th June 2023, 2.00 p.m. at Kelham Island Museum
Click here to book your place

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR DIGITAL RESOURCES

A new digital Knife Archive is being 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.