This book tells the story of how Sheffield came to dominate the domestic production of heavy vehicle springs for both rail and road.
For many years it enjoyed prominence as a critical part of the Sheffield industrial landscape, generating significant revenues and profits for most of the big players in the Sheffield stell establishment as well as for a host of small and mediumn producers.
It also employed thousands of men, many of whom were elite craftsmen, whose unions were for years in the vanguard of the local labour movement.
This book explores how and why this hugely successful Sheffield trade, recognised and celebrated nationally as the centre of the trade, achieved domination and how and why it ultimately came to fail, reduced today to a scattering of survivors whose presence barely registers in the local economy.
The Sheffield Heavy Spring Trade 1829-2025 traces the history of the spring-making industry in Sheffield, where it was largely born and existed until the mid-20th century. Illustrated with archive and recent photographs and diagrams. 192 pages.