Locksmith's House

Image: © John M Taken: 21 Aug 2010

An unusual public opening for the threatened museum. The museum is an 1840s house and workshop used from the early 20th century by the Hodson family for the manufacture of padlocks. The daughters of the family had a drapery shop in the front parlour. The family lived in the house, sharing their scullery with the japanning finishing process. A trust purchased the house in 1983 and opened the Lock Museum in 1987. This operated until transferred to the Black Country Living Museum in 2005 for a nominal sum. In 2008 problems with low visitor numbers coupled with withdrawal of sponsorship by the lock industry and Walsall Council meant that the site was unviable and only pre-arranged parties were catered for. Plans to remove the workshop to the Black Country Living Museum were blocked by the planners. The BCLM announced that they had cancelled the plan in June 2010 due to budgetary constraints. This leaves the status of the Grade 2 listed building and contents with an uncertain future. The preferred option for it to remain unchanged is unviable but if it is sold on what would happen to the workshops and contents? Should we really be worried about the loss of a reminder of an industry that has departed these shores over the last twenty or thirty years in search of a cheap unskilled workforce in India and China? Visiting the museum today it was interesting to note how many of the visitors had worked in the lock making industry.

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