Nigel Wiggin visits Rochdale Antiques Society

Rochdale Antiques Society's most recent speaker was Nigel Wiggin, a family member of the Old Hall stainless steel tableware company. The company was originally called J & J Wiggin and began as blacksmiths in 1833 in Wallsall making buckles for leather goods out of nickel. In 1901 they moved into a Salvation Army Hall which had become vacant and was called the Old Hall Works.

In 1918 William Wiggin (Nigel’s grandfather) took over the company and started to make bathroom fittings from stainless steel which had been invented in Sheffield in 1913 and was called Staybrite. The company name was changed from J& J Wiggin to Olde Hall in 1922, the ‘e’ was dropped from the name in 1959.

In 1928 William Wiggin and his wife were given silver tableware for their silver wedding anniversary. Mrs Wiggin (Nellie) didn’t like having to clean it and suggested that it would be better made out of stainless steel. By the 1930s they were making tea sets out of stainless steel. This stopped for the war effort, but after that the company grew by producing excellent quality goods, mainly designed by Robert Welsh, such as the Connaught, the Alveston and Camden and the Balmoral, until by the 1960s they employed 520 people and their works around the original Old Hall base was the size of four football pitches.

Cheaper quality stainless steel tea sets started coming in from the Far East and the company reduced drastically until it closed in 1984.

The new season starts on Wednesday 10 September with Maria Glott speaking on the Building of the Saltaire World Heritage Site and a trip is to be arranged to visit Saltaire in October.

Rochdale Antiques Society meets from September to May.

Contact: andrewjlord@btinternet.com