Thomas turton

The son of a prominent Sheffield family, Thomas Turton, set up his own business in the now famous Sheaf works in Sheffield in 1824. It was the very first integrated steel works in Europe, and for the next 156 years the company remained a specialist steel maker.

The acquisition of Stephenson Blake and Co. Ltd. lead to the division of Thomas Turton & Sons Ltd. into 2 separate areas, Coil and Laminated Spring (Leaf Spring) production and the production of steels, with the company specialising in High Speed Steel and Hand Held Tools.

A great turning point came in 1950 when Sir Alfred McAlpine approached the company with a request to produce a special Wedge type chisel for a pneumatic hammer. This Pneumatic hammer tool would go on to become the original version of the Thomas Turton TW1 Rock-breaker, a tool which would, in turn, go on to transform the business.

Land bought in 1967 on the Sheepbridge Industrial Estate near Chesterfield, had new facilities built upon it. 1968 saw the first stage of the move completed, when the Coil and Spring operation was relocated. The Contractor's Tool production was moved 4 years later, with the company's steel production in Sheffield finally ending altogether in 1980. Two major automating processes were introduced, to speed up both the 'Cogging out' process and pressing/blading of Contractor's Tools. The 300 Ton and 1,000 Ton Etchells Presses became valuable additions to the Thomas Turton production process.

Bramber Engineering Co. Ltd. was acquired completely during the 1970's as part of an administrative restructure, a transfer of the shares was made, making it a subsidiary of Stephenson Blake (Holdings) Ltd. until 1982 when it was completely absorbed into the company.

The diversification into the Demolition Tools market was done by sub-contracting out the production, but the rapid growth in the use of Hydraulic Hammers meant that in August of 1996 Crossbow Rock Drills was acquired from Arcrite Process Systems Ltd. meaning Thomas Turton became one of the leading names in the Demolition and Contractor's Tool industries. Through a series of further investments, state-of-the-art machinery was installed, including an automated self feed bar system with driven tooling for high volume manufacture, Clipping Press and Blast Cleaning equipment improving both speed and quality of production.

Padley and Venables Ltd. bought the Thomas Turton company in October 1999 which lead to the transfer of Crossbow production to the Padley & Venables site on Callywhite Lane in Dronfield. This was followed in October 2001 with the transfer of the remaining manufacturing facilities and the ceasing of the Coil Spring production division 12 months later. So after a proud and eventful 176 year history Thomas Turton lives on today as 'a trading style of Padley & Venables Ltd.', but retains its own identity and brand names, now bolstered by a range of products featuring Hydraulic Demolition Tools and Pneumatic Contractor's Tools for supply to the whole world.