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  Nailers

Nailers

UK Trades
Introduction
Lock Smiths
Miners
Nailers
Boot & Shoemakers
Fish Merchants
 

Hand made nail making was a well established trade in the villages and hamlets of Birmingham and Wolverhampton in the 1700's and it may have started originally to supply nails for horse shoes.

Nail making involved all the family, the skills were not difficult to learn and the equipment needed was very basic and the ease of entry made it particularly attractive to unemployed agricultural workers.

In the early Census Records for Coleshill, 1811, 1821, 1831, [more information was given than was usual] and the Charles and Thomas Tuckley families were listed as Nailers. In the Coleshill trade directory for 1828/29 only the two Tuckley families are listed as Nail Makers suggesting they had a monopoly over the business in the area.

Early in the 1800's some enterprising nail workers saw an opportunity to make more money as "nail masters or makers" supplying iron for other workers to make into nails.

Thomas Tuckley born 1770 in Coleshill was listed as a Nail Maker. He may have been one of the earliest people with the name Tuckley to have had his photograph taken circa 1855 / 1860 [copy taken off glass plate negative belonging to Joan Tuckley]

The Tuckley family developed their business in Coleshill into Tin Smiths, Builders, Furnishing and Agricultural Ironmongers, Oil Merchants
T A Tuckley the Ironmongers in the High Street of Coleshill closed down in 1986 but fortunately some of their records were given to Warwick Records Office.

Their Nail Makers Ledger entitled " Work book for Men" showing payments to individual workmen for quantities of different types of Nails produced between 1857 and 1892. They have also deposited the details of the payment code used In the early records in the book.

In order to keep the cost and prices to themselves they used the code word DONCASTER to prevent nail workers from knowing what was their profit margin . D stood for 1 and O stood for 2 and so forth up to R which stood for 9. Joan Tuckley one of three sisters who owned TA Tuckley indicated that the code continued in use up until the introduction of decimilation in the 1960's.

John Tuckley's Family Tree Website Interested in the Tuckley Name, want to know more, or have something to add? Please get in touch with me HERE.