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Skeltons (Ironmongers ? ) Help needed .


GL 2484

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I am an amateur Metal Detectorist. I was detecting at Preston Brook last week and found a spent shotgun cap with the Eley manufacturers stamp that also carried the Vendors headstamp

 

' Skelton's Ltd Warrington '.

 

Anyone out there know of Skeltons Ltd?

 

I know from previous experience that vendors such as Ironmongers, who sold Shotgun shells, quite often purchased Shotgun shells from Ely's and had their name added as a form of advertising.

 

I would say the shotgun cap dates to the late 19th to 20th century.

 

Glenn

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Had a quick trawl of the web and come up with an Elijah Skelton who is listed in a directory at 20 and 22 buttermarket street. he is down as a general dealer in one section and as a hardware and general dealer in another. also came across a page that had him at the same address with the additional infromation of him being a cutler. the person who put this information on the page was answering a queery by somebody else into a straight razor by skelton of warrington. They gave a date of 1871.

 

Maybe one of the other posters can find a bit more in one of the directory sites. Will ask teh oracle later to see if the name rings a bell (otherwise known as my mum who can't remeber what day it is half the time but can give chapter and verse on anybody living within a five mile radius of bewsey).

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Hi GL2484 and welcome to the forum :D

I'm trying to look in the old newspapers although the site they are on is going really slow tonight. 

My searches for Skeltons Ltd Warrington and similar in the old papers have only returned an 'Elijah Skelton' too so far in that that a partnership was dissolved between a William Wheeler and Elijah Skelton of Warrington, Lancashire, Hardware Dealers  (newspaper dated 14 September 1859)

Sorry if that is not much help but I'll have another look tomorrow.

There is another member called Indy who is also a metal detectorist/archaeologist on here so maybe he can help if he's reading.

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Dizzy/ Evil Sid

 

Thanks for your efforts so far ! I didn't think you would come up with a possible ID so soon :P . As they are not my main area of interest I pass all my Shotgun caps on to a collector in Wiltshire who is currently compiling a list of Headstamps with the view to publishing a book when he has enough examples to do so. I think I will keep this one though as it is of interest to me being local. I will send an image to the collector with any details you can supply.

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This might help point us in the right direction.  It's Elijah's probate record.

elijahskeltonwarrww.jpg 

Elijah was born in Sheffield in 1826, he married Esther Partington in in 1851 and he died in Sankey in 1882.  All that bit is totally irrelevant though I guess :oops:

Ignore the fact it says he is a farmer as although he was when he died having looked him up on Ancestry etc a past census return shows him him as being an Ironmonger and on his sons baptism (ie William Partington Skelton) in 1856 it show Elijah's trade/profession as a 'cutlery manufacturer'. 

Elija's two sons who are named in his probate were also Iron mongers according to later census returns.  In 1891 son Wilfred (aged 33, Ironmonger) who is named on the probate lived at Hille Cliffe Appleton with his wife and children.

So........ maybe it's from William & Wilfred Skeltons Ironmongers if they carried on the family business.

Did anyone follow all that :lol: :lol:
 

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A little bit more about Wilfred Skelton the Ironmonger.  Clearly quite a wealthy and educated family.

1901 Census shows him and his family living at a house called 'Hill Side', Red Lane, Walton Inferior (in Stockton Heath)    remember boundaries were different back then etc
He is age 43 and a RETIRED Ironmonger.

1911 Census shows him living at Hill Cliffe, Appleton, aged 53 living on 'Independent Means' and one of his sons who still lived at home was a Solicitor (clever boy)

I know all that probably sounds irrelevant too but it's not and if I don't type it on here I'll forget where I was upto later when I carry on looking for the Skelton company :wink:

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22 buttermarket street is where edwin allens is or was so i have been told.

 

wonder if they changed to cycle and gramaphone repair as the the general merchanting and cutling started to drop off and the new fangled gramaphones and cycles started to gain popularity. Moving with the times as it were.

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Ahhh I was sure I'd seen the name Skelton somewhere before Baz but I couldn't remember where.  It was your record sleeve. .Could be a a different Skelton or perhaps the same family had different businesses as like I said in one of my previous post the one who lived at Hill Cliffe seemed rather wealthy.  Do you know the names of the Skelton's who owned the Sankey Street record/cycle shop or when it existed as I can check if they are from the same family.

PS Evils Edwin Allen's is/was number 14 & 16 Buttermarket Street not 22 although when it first opened (1894) it was only in number 16 but Edwin Allen then bought the shop next door to expand (1900 ish ??) I think 18 used to be a Tea shop or something.

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well dizz the record is probably from around 1930's that was when the film whoopie was released so if you assume say 1910 to 1930 it may just narrow it down a bit in any archives.

 

strange as it may seem the singer had a small speaking part in monty pythons the meaning of life, he was one of the pirates in the mutual assurance bit. a slight digression but interesting as he was a prolific song writer and music hall star born in 1897.

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It certainly is Tracey and I hope you are on the search for info on the Warrington one now too as you're really good at this sort of stuff. :D

Still nothing from Algy though.... I shall be marking him for a detention and 5 whips of the cane soon and telling his dear lady wife to ground him for a month too :lol: 

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one of the people who I bowl with said that he remembered the cycle shop in sankey street just. another said he thought there might have been a skeltons gunsmiths in the latchford area at one time. It must have ben fairly recent as the chap is a few years younger than me. He seems to think there was worrals and skeltons who were both gunshops at the time. probably going back to around the late sixties early seventies.

 

Cant say that I remember a gunshop in latchford but do remember worrals. but then again I was never that interested in guns, despite being brought up in the era when westerns were standard programming for both channels anyday of the week that there was a slack hour or two between news reports and corrie.

 

so now that seems a possible three sources for the catridge cap. More digging required on this one then to get to the bottom of the mystery.

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How good is that. I fancy getting a metal detector now, are they hard to use and expensive ? :D

Re your photo, is ELEY the manufacturer and Number 12 the size  ?

Sorry for all the questions but it's really interesting.

 

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Dizzy

              You are correct. Eley ( Brother's) is the manufacturer and No.12 is the cartridge calibre ( 12 bore ) shotgun. The sizes vary from 4 to 15 but 12 bore makes up 98% of cartridges found.

 

The new detector prices vary from £125 to £3000 depending what you want. There is a good selection of secondhand machines available as detectorists tend to upgrade to a 'Better' machine after only a few months. Just watch out for cheap Chinese and Russian 'Bargains' as they are poorly built and will put you off the hobby before youv'e started.

The cheaper machines are (Mostly) easier to use and are designed for beginners but are responsible for a lot of top class finds. If you are going to purchase one I would recommend a lower end Garret ( Ace 150 or 250) or a Whites ( Lower spec.) . There are plenty of hardly used  secondhand examples of these around, just trawl the net but buy from a dealer such as Regtons or Crawfords as they take lots in part ex for upgrades. I will post some more finds from the Warrington area when I get a chance.

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You are allowed to keep any item that is not classed as 'Treasure' under the 1997 'Treasure Act. That is:

 

 

Any artefact more than 300 years old containing more than 5% precious metal content would qualify as Treasure.

 

2 or more coins made of precious metal and more than 300 years old found together or in close proximity to each other.

 

10 or more coins made of base metal and more than 300 years old.

 

Any assemblage of Bronze age metalwork susoected as being concealed as a Hoard

 

All of these would qualify as Treasure.

 

At present I have a few items going through the Treasure act and this process can take up to 3 years !

 

Anything else you can keep. .

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