Snips & Off-Cuts
At Whiteley’s, we have twelve people who work in the factory and warehouse, making and packing and dispatching. All these jobs have their own special sounds which make up the tapestry of the day, and if one of those sounds is missing, it is immediately noticeable!
Everyone is very skilled at their own particular job and nobody has ever left here after visiting the factory without saying “ I had no idea all that was involved!”
Everyone is fascinated and immediately really interested; the team love having visitors, too, as it makes the day more interesting for them and also they like to feel appreciated ( which they very much are). They are all very rare birds with almost unique skills which they learn when they come here and which have been passed down over the years.
Since we started letting the world know that we exist, an astonishing number of people have come forward, with Whiteley or Wilkinson scissors and shears that have been in their families for generations, or that they’ve bought from an antique shop or similar establishment.
Quite a few of these have been sent here for refurbishment, which our craftsmen love doing and are often sad to part with them. We get many requests for the age of the scissors and even how much they would have cost back in the day!
Luckily, we have a number of catalogues to help with this, some even dating back to 1875 which can supply the required information. The oldest pair of scissors we’ve received were from the 1875 catalogue and they were beautiful. Even more luckily for me, various grandparents had had the forethought to write the date of the catalogue on the front so I can be sure (almost) that they are correctly dated.
