New Hawley Gallery at Kelham Island Museum will open to the public in March

The Hawley Collection, a unique and internationally important display of tool making, cutlery manufacture and silversmithing tools has been given a permanent home at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield and will open its doors to the public on Wednesday 17th March 2010.

Thanks to a significant grant of £595, 000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the former Wheatman and Smith Saw Works building at Kelham Island Museum has been renovated to create the Hawley Gallery, a permanent home for the prestigious collection.

The Collection was assembled over a working lifetime by Sheffield tool retailer Ken Hawley who began collecting the tools in the 1950s.

John Hamshere, Chief Executive of Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust said

"This is the first time that the entire Hawley Collection has had a gallery dedicated to showing the full scope of the items.

"The Gallery will feature a programme of temporary exhibitions, talks and family activities that will enable the wider community to admire and learn more about the items in the Collection and it will add an interesting dimension to the new Kelham Island Museum.

"We are delighted that the Collection has relocated to Kelham Island as this is a fitting location for it to have a permanent home."

Gathered mostly from Sheffield and Yorkshire, but also from Britain and the rest of the world, the Collection now contains over 100,000 objects including tools and related catalogues, photographs, films and oral histories.

The new Hawley Gallery has four interconnected areas: Starting the Journey, Investigating Design, Investigating Making and Investigating Selling and has been created to show the range and scope of the Collection as well as to encourage active exploration and discovery of the story of Sheffield's tool making heritage.

Alison Duce, Head of Curatorial Services for Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust and the Hawley Project Coordinator:

"We have been extremely busy developing the first exhibition to feature within the Hawley Gallery, which tells of the life and designs of Wallace Smythe who worked for Mappin & Webb and will be 100 years old this February.

"We hope to make all of the exhibitions interactive and encourage new ways for our visitors to explore the site, including trails and workshops."

For more information see the website www.simt.co.uk or contact Judith Smith or Jenny Bland on 0114 276 2602, or e-mail audiences@simt.co.uk

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Press enquiries relating to Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust please contact Ruby Slippers:
Nichola Atherton 0114 221 7487 or 07855 745 521, nichola@rubyslippers.co.uk

Hawley Gallery Information

The huge range of artefacts in the collection offers an intriguing window into the past as it reflects the story of the tool, cutlery and silver trades of Sheffield. The collection has the tools that made other tools including the special hammer used to make a saw blade flat with 300 strikes at different angles and tools to give files their teeth, the world's first steel tape measure and the history of the Stanley knife.

Other items from the collection include archives such as photographs and over 5000 trade catalogues for British and foreign hand tools, cutlery, hollowware, surgical instruments and machine tools. Cine footage of the tools in action and an oral history from Ken Hawley will take visitors back in time.