Catalogue description PRODUCTION AND SALES RECORDS

The material in this series primarily relates to the production, advertising and sale of products manufactured by Joseph Sankey & Sons Ltd, later GKN Sankey Ltd, as well as material relating to the operation of the firm's Works in Bilston and Hadley Castle, Shropshire. There is also a set of production records for the Wolverhampton firm Bayliss, Jones & Bayliss Ltd, and some production records of other GKN subsidiary companies. The production records consist of order books; works pattern books; and material relating to contracts, and contain a wealth of technical information about the range of products manufactured by the firm with details about the manufacturing process and labour requirements, and the functions and workings of the factory from the late nineteenth century onwards, as well as the kinds of businesses and organisations that the firm supplied, particularly during the first half of the twentieth century. The contracts files in particular contain much evidence about the products that the company was manufacturing during the Second World War - which included aircraft parts, bombs and steel helmets - and the financial assistance that the government provided in order for the Works to expand and for the firm to be supplied with the correct machinery and equipment to carry out the contracts. By contrast, the sales and advertising records provide much information about the broad range of products manufactured by the firm during peace time, and the changes in focus of production during the course of the twentieth century, from the huge variety of hollow ware products manufactured at the company's Albert Street Works during the early twentieth century and the steel wheels and automotive components manufactured at the firm's Hadley Castle Works, to the products being manufactured by the Brewery Division and the Automatic Vending Division in the 1960s and 1970s. The early sales catalogues complement the order books and works pattern books from the same period. In addition to sales catalogues; price lists; and advertising leaflets, the sales and advertising records in this series include correspondence; departmental memoranda; and other administrative documents. With the exception of the sales catalogues and some of the war-time contract files, most of the records in this series are connected with the firm's Bilston Works. The collection of Joseph Sankey & Sons Ltd business records held at Shropshire Archives includes some production records of the Hadley Castle Works.