Wednesday 6th May

In his talk Keith Crawshaw  (Chair of the Hawley Tool Collection, Kelham Island Museum) relates the saw’s journey from Sheffield back to Sheffield via Windsor, Berlin, Kronberg (Frankfurt), Paris, Lugano, Zurich and Vienna.  The small decorative back saw was made by craftsmen in Sheffield in 1858, created as a wedding present for Princess Victoria & Crown Prince Frederick Willliam of Prussia).

Having passed into the union between the British and German royal families, it witnessed a phase of Nazi sympathisers and then looting by US soldiers, sold by a flea market in Paris to a Swiss fine tool collector and finally was returned home to Sheffield after a remarkable 4,000+ mile journey.