The Hallen Family, Iron Platers and Frying Pan Makers

Abstract

AbstractThe Hallen family were iron platers and frying pan makers over six generations and 200 years, providing an unusual example of a specialised trade (manufacture of wrought iron frying pans) dominated by a single immigrant family over a long period in several parts of England. The enterprise began in 1601 at Stanton Drew, Somerset, making armour plate and pans. The chief workman was Cornelius Hallen, possibly from Mechelen, Belgium. A second and larger branch was established at Wandsworth in or about 1634, with about fourteen foreign workmen, some at least from the Liege area. Between 1647 and 1654, the Hallens established three further branches in the West Midlands, at Coalbrookdale, Stourbridge and Newcastle-under-Lyme, with a plate mill and pan shops at each. Around 1700, the two earlier sites were converted to copper working, but the Hallens continued to make iron pans in the Midlands. A Birmingham branch was added in about 1719. There was decline after about 1750, with the end of panmaking in Ne...