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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    5
    Country: Ireland

    Default Banbury Lock Any Idea Of Age

    Hi Guys,

    Another nice lock has come this way again. It is an old Banbury lock in fully working condition, just needed a small bit of a clean up. The only thing that I can say about the lock is that from what we can see the key looks to have been forged and not cast.

    When the timber housing was made for this the maker seems to have split the timber and made up an S out of metal to stop the split from running.
    I have attached the before and after pics for you all to look at and have a guess at the age.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    This is the lock after a small clean up.
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    Thanks For Looking
    Alan

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Seattle WA
    Posts
    1,327
    Country: United States

    Default

    If you intend to keep the wood I would find a way to preserve it. Nice lock.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    California, USA
    Posts
    216
    Country: United States

    Default Banbury lock

    Hi crafties -

    My estimate is that your lock might date from the late 18th or early 19th century. This type of lock was made in both Europe and America. I could find very little about it in my reference material. Kauffman's Early American Ironware Cast and Wrought calls it a Bambury stock lock. (Notice that he spells it Bambury instead of Banbury. I've seen both spellings.) He calls it a stock lock "because the case was made of wood and the mechanism was made of metal." He goes on to write, "A special type of stock lock was called a Bambury lock. The mechanism of the common stock lock was made completely of metal and the mechanism was inletted into wood. The mechanism of the Bambury type was attached to the case of wood, a procedure which was less costly and less lasting." He also states that an advertisement by S. Jones in the J & J Patterson Lock Manufacturing of Pittsburgh offered Bambury stock locks.

    Sorry I can't tell you more.
    Scott

  4. #4

    Default

    Very interesting, I had not run across that explanation before. So the lock in the images would be the first type. Also a type I have never encountered in real life, however I have encountered many of the second type and even have a few. I have always heard that the type of lock was invented in Banbury, Oxfordshire, is that true?
    BBE.

    [QUOTE=Scott Klemm;7683]Hi crafties -

    My estimate is that your lock might date from the late 18th or early 19th century. This type of lock was made in both Europe and America. I could find very little about it in my reference material. Kauffman's Early American Ironware Cast and Wrought calls it a Bambury stock lock. (Notice that he spells it Bambury instead of Banbury. I've seen both spellings.) He calls it a stock lock "because the case was made of wood and the mechanism was made of metal." He goes on to write, "A special type of stock lock was called a Bambury lock. The mechanism of the common stock lock was made completely of metal and the mechanism was inletted into wood. The mechanism of the Bambury type was attached to the case of wood, a procedure which was less costly and less lasting." He also states that an advertisement by S. Jones in the J & J Patterson Lock Manufacturing of Pittsburgh offered Bambury stock locks.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    California, USA
    Posts
    216
    Country: United States

    Default Banbury Lock

    I found a little more information about the Banbury (or Bambury) lock. Lock at my recent posting on My Old Lock and Key.
    Scott

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    188
    Country: Canada

    Default

    Nice early Double Throw lock.

    Brian ..............................................

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    34
    Country: UK

    Default

    It isn't a double throw lock, it's a single throw, else you'd see two V notches to throw it twice.

    I'd put this as older than 1800, but it is entirely possible it was made cheap, later, by hand. But by 1900 they wouldn't have been hammer forging the bolt like that, & it likely would have mostly modern looking screws holding it together.

    Hard to say without looking closely at it in person though.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Edinburgh
    Posts
    259
    Country: UK

    Default Banbury stock lock

    Very hard to date, as noted already. Looks to me well-made, of the sort produced commercially by lockmakers in Willenhall. However, they were also made occasionally by local blacksmiths. Any offcuts of wood could be used, even mahogany! My guess is that the repair to the split in the stock is a later repair. I'm going to agree with late 18C - early 19C, but probably earlier rather than later.

    There seems no known reason for the name Banbury, which was an area where furniture was made. The other sort of stock lock, btw, was sometimes distinguished as a plate stock lock. T C Crompton continued production of these until the late 1950's in Britain.

  9. #9

    Default

    I can't believe that it is still working after all this time! Truly a testament to the quality and the craftsmanship of this lock maker.

    I hope that you can preserve that wood, it would be a shame to loose that.

  10. #10

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BBE View Post
    Very interesting, I had not run across that explanation before. So the lock in the images would be the first type. Also a type I have never encountered in real life, however I have encountered many of the second type and even have a few. I have always heard that the type of lock was invented in Banbury, Oxfordshire, is that true?
    BBE.
    I have to examples of the BAMbury lock that I can definitely date by the age of the buildings they were taken off of when the buildings were razed. The first was built in 1735 near Staunton, VA.

    The second is from a building built KY in 1820.

    Both locks have been assembled to the stock with square nails.
    BBE.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Bam-1735.jpg   Bam-1820.jpg  

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