Records of the Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers

1. Articles of Association, 1 doc., 1811

2. Correspondence relating to the formation of a national Union of Tin Plate Workers' Societies, 3 docs., 1820, 1821

3. Correspondence and circulars from the United Tin Plate Workers' Union of the United Kingdom and Ireland, 5 docs., 1821-1822

The documents listed below were donated to in March 1957 by Ald. Fred Robinson, Acc. 322 According to the Evening Express, 25 Sep. 1947 (see Biographical Newscuttings : Robinson, Ald. Fred [(c. 1881 - )] the donor had served for 24 years (c. 1923-1947) as district secretary to the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers (see notes below). Prior to this he had been secretary to the Liverpool Branch of the Union and in 1939 he was elected as its national president. Unfortunately no details relating to the circumstances of this donation have been recorded.

The United Tin Plate Workers' Union of the United Kingdom and Ireland, to which the Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers became affiliated in 1821, is, through various changes of title and constituent membership, now [1972] the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers, Coppersmiths, Heating and Domestic Engineers.

Details relating to the early history of the Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers are given by Francis Turner (ed) History of the Liverpool Society of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers from 1802 to 1920 in Quarterly Journal of the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers, 1930-1934 (Ref. 4331 881 SHE). According to Turner, p. 7, the Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers "... has always been stated to have been founded in 1802 [but] we have no proof, and no documents are in existence prior to 1811, when the Articles of Association of the Society of Tin Plate Workers in Liverpool were recorded at Ormskirk ..." (see 331 TIN 1/1 below).

In 1821 The Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers was one of the earliest to become affiliated to the newly formed national United Tin Plate Workers Union of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Liverpool Society appears to have undergone various changes of title, becoming in 1853 the Liverpool Friendly Society of Tin Plate Workers, in 1876 the Liverpool Operative Tin Plate Workers' Society, in 1899 the Operative Braziers and Sheet Metal Workers' Society and in 1920 the Liverpool Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers' Society, a Branch of the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers (see Turner op. cit., (p. 1), now the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers, Coppersmiths, Heating and Domestic Engineers (see notes above).

Most of Turner's History is made up of transcript or extracts "Collected from Documents in Possession of the Liverpool Branch [of the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers]". Transcripts of eight of the documents listed below are given by Turner (relevant page numbers are included in the list) and he also describes minute books, cash books and other documents not amongst the records listed below.

A number of the letters listed here are addressed to James Hogarth who was, according to Turner, pp. 28-29, Secretary to the Liverpool Society of Tin Plate Workers "about 1821".