New Street
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Reuben Heaton Ltd

Unit I 0, Sunnyside Park Industrial Estate, Wheatfield Way, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LEIO IPJ.
Tel +44 (0) 1455 230241, Fax +44 (0)1455 616869 Web Site,
Web Site http://www.reubenheaton.co.uk
e-mail info@reubenheaton.co.uk

Research by John Houghton Many thanks to Birmingham city Libraries for the wonderful photographs.

a Brief History >>
Hospital Street Birmingham >>
New Street aston, Birmingham >>
Two Gates, Tamworth >>
Lindrossa Road, Sutton coldfield >>
The Scales >>
Lindrossa Road, Sutton coldfield >>
alfred Street, West Bromwich >>
Market Bosworth, Warwickshire >>
Barton in the Beans, Warwickshire >>
Hinckley, Leicestershire >>
The Reels >>
The LRI Limited Edition Reel >>

a Brief History

Reuben Heaton ad

The Heaton name was well known in Birmingham, with family members believed to be involved with the running of the Birmingham Mint. at the tender age of eighteen, Reuben Heaton was given a substantial sum of money by his father, to enable him to start out in life. This appears to have been the case with all the Heaton's children when they came of age, and with this new-found wealth Reuben, a keen angler with an inventive mind set himself up in the business of tackle manufacture, and hence the company was born.

Hospital Street Birmingham

Very little is known about the early years of the company prior to the 1880's. The evidence of Reuben's business success and his influence on the angling trade, is bome out by the prolific number of inventions and patents applied for during this period. From the Hospital Street premises, we see the evidence of frantic development in rods, rod rings and ferrules, landing nets, balances, gut twisting machines, baits and of course a large range of metal and wood reels including both centerpin and multiplying designs. Some of the more familiar patents and products to appear during this time were as follows.

  • 3250 - Strike From The Winch Reel - 1884
  • 13388 - The Sun Nottingham Reel - 1885
  • 18817 - Spindleless Reel - 1888
  • 8957 - Patent Drum catch - 1897

Reuben Heaton


although he married several times, very few of Reuben's children stayed with the business for any length of time. One notable exception, his eldest son Ralph, played a major role in the company, subsequently inheriting the business on his father's death. Initially at 9 & 10 Hospital Street, then 'ust number 10 and finally 161-165, the company continued to evolve and expand before moving on in the early 1900's to larger premises in aston Birmingham.

 

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New Street aston, Birmingham

Business continued to flourish at the new site during the early 1900's, with the product range as strong and diverse as ever. The main production at this time was wooden reels for both coarse and sea, with the company proudly boasting of its production rate in the tens of thousands of reels per year. The range of metal reels in ebonite, brass and alloy shows development in this sector too, but the emphasis was on wood. as seems to be the case throughout the company's history, the majority of products bore no Heaton's marks. Many items, especially reels were manufactured in great quantity for other companies such as allcocks and army and Navy, and more often than not stamped with the customer's name, or just left blank.

Reuben Heaton

Ralph's first son Reuben, born in 1900, joined the firm around the same time that the Great War began to take its toll, and a few years later the firm also employed his second son Irving, born in 1907, and the Heaton's dynasty continued. During the war Heaton's manufactured munitions for the war effort, as did many companies at this time and the resulting suspension of trade and loss

To improve their efficiency, Heaton's made many changes to production techniques and reduced their product range, focussing much more on reels and less on accessories. 1923 saw the death of Reuben Heaton aged 83.

around 1930, match scale production begins with the Issac Walton logo, appearing on the dial face of the scales along with the company address. The addresses on the dials change as the company address changes, enabling us to approximate the age of the scales, in many cases, it is also possible to give an accurate date from dates stamped on the inside the scale. Originally designed by Ralph Heaton, the match scales are still being made to this day, indeed many items made by the company continued in production for long periods of time virtually unchanged in some cases, confirming some designs as being well ahead of their time. However, indifference to changes occurring in the angling trade, would cost the company dearly in the future.

Reuben Heaton

Whilst the list of countries and companies being supplied was impressive to say the least, new ideas in angling and the advent of fixed spool reels, saw Heaton's for once not at the forefront of the development race. as the face of angling began to change in the late 40's and early 50's Heaton's product range began to look very dated. There is evidence that Heaton's dabbled with designs for fixed spool reels, but for some reason these trials never bore fruit. Product ranges tended to stay the same, and this period sees Heaton's become decidedly set in its ways.


With the death of Ralph Heaton in 1952, the majority of the shares in the company were divided between his sons Reuben and Irving, with a lesser share to his two daughters. In 1954 Irving's son John also joined the firm as an apprentice reel maker, continuing the family involvement.

The fifties saw some major redevelopment work in and around Birmingham, and the New Street area was earmarked for compulsory purchase. With business less than it had been, thoughts of closure were considered, rather than suffer the upheaval and expense of moving. However a chance conversation led to the company moving to new premises in the Birmingham overspill area of Tamworth, where some of the factory workers were also relocated.

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Two Gates, Tamworth

Heaton's moved to Tamworth in 1960, the area around the old Heaton's factory eventually making way for a shopping centre. The product range still contained the traditional centerpin reels mainly of the cheaper pressed metal variety, along with wood and Tufnol sea reels, and it was these that became the mainstay of production at this time. Right up to the close of the site in the 1971, the Scarborough reels proved to the best selling product along with the match scales. Other products included rod ferrules, bank sticks, gaffs and various metal products.

In 1963 Irving Heaton died leaving his share of the company to his son John. Eventually all the company shares were acquired from other family members by Reuben and John, leaving them as equal partners in the business.

Low prices dictated by customers and the resulting lack of investment, saw the closure of the firm due to financial problems in 1971, and the splitting up of the product range between family members as they went their own way. The match scales side of the business and the name moved to the home of Reuben Heaton and became Reuben Heaton (Scales) Ltd, whilst the reels stayed with John Heaton.

Reuben Heaton -The Scales

Lindrossa Road, Sutton coldfield

Reuben Heaton continued to produce the match scales in his garage workshop over the next few years, along with a high quality range of trout and salmon landing nets, before selling the scales business on again to a tackle dealer Ken austin in 1976. Reuben continued to make small amounts of angling items for a brief period, but essentially this was the end of his involvement in the angling trade.

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alfred Street, West Bromwich

Whilst based at the midland tackle shop, the business revolved solely around the alloy match scales and weighing equipment, no other angling products were made under the Heaton's banner. The match scales became very popular and a common site on the match circuit, whilst facing little competition in this market at this time.

Scale making continued here until 1986 when the business was again sold to an agent Trevor Dolman working in the tackle trade.

Market Bosworth, Warwickshire

Under new management and still Reuben Heaton (Scales) Ltd, the company continued to produce a range of the traditional alloy match scales, weighing accessories, and angling equipment. In a bid to take a wider share of the match scale market Heaton's bought out a rival match scales manufacturer contesta in the early 80's. The scale manufacturing side of the business was further developed in collaboration with another scale manufacturer Waymaster, who made small quantities of lightweight, plastic bodied scales for Heaton's to sell to individual anglers.

1989 saw the death of Reuben Heaton, and during the same year the company was sold to its current owners. Soon after, competition in the match scale market lead to Heaton's expanding the specialist scales side of the business in an attempt to broaden its base. Production of the new scales required larger premises, and in 1993 the company moved to the nearby village of Barton in the Beans.

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Barton in the Beans, Warwickshire

Following the acquisition of Wayrnaster by the Kenwood company, manufacture of the specialist plastic bodied scales was moved form Waymaster to the Barton site in a bid to improve production. Heaton's again began to manufacture for other companies, and slowly the business began to grow. Expansion of the product range led to a name change back to Reuben Heaton Ltd, the "scales" portion of the name being dropped as the product range increased to include weighing accessories and items of angling equipment as well as the scales.

Further collaboration between Heaton's and Kenwood in 1998, saw the opening of much larger premises in Hinckley, Leicestershire just to cope with scale production alone.

Hinckley, Leicestershire

Production at this new site included many new scale models produced for other companies, includin a range of catering scales.

Both angling and general use in all markets, and new additions to the range saw the transition of Heaton's from an angling based company to a general scales manufacturer.

When Kenwood was acquired by the French company DeLongi, catering scale production slowed at the factory, but was quickly replaced by further expansion of both standard and angling scale production. Recent developments have seen the firm increase its weighing accessories range, and most recently of all, its range of angling based products.

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Reuben Heaton - The Reels

after the close of the company in 1971, John Heaton the last member of the family to have an active involvement with the firm, continued to produce Scarborough type reels as he had done for many years since starting work at Heaton's at the age of eleven.

In conjunction with a colleague Tom Woodhouse, and now under the "Heawood" brand, John continued to make reels whilst Tom designed and built a new match scale range. although wooden Scarborough's were still being made, reel manufacture at this point mainly consisted of the cheaper Tufnol models. These reels sold at nearly half the price of the wooden reels making them far more popular, with sizes ranging from six inches in diameter, to specialist sizes in excess of ten inches. Heawood's continued until 1984, when debts forced the closure of the company.

Remnants of the reel business were eventually sold in late 1984 to another company Lewtham Engineering. Lewtham were already manufacturing fly reels at the time, along with priests and other angling items. Initially making only the Tufnol version of the Scarborough's, the company started to revive the sea reel business, eventually restarting production of the wooden reels in 1986. The company still makes Tufnol and wooden Scarborough reels to this day, along with a range of pressed metal and machined alloy centre pin reels and other angling accessories.

The LRI Limited Edition Reel

The LRI reel is the result of a 'joint venture between Heaton's and Lewtham Engineering, with all components being manufactured and finished by the two companies. The presentation box is made by another old established midlands firm Richard Wheatley, echoing past collaborations between great British tackle manufacturers, and provides a fitting accompaniment for the reel.

as the reel materials come from original company stock kept by family members since well before the firm's closure, the LRI reels represent the last product ade using original stock, indeed the last product physically linked to the company's past.

Whilst Heaton's now produces many products for sale outside the sphere of angling, the angling market still forms the heart of the company. Now 'ust 145 years young, the company continues into the new millennium, development and design of new products continues, and hopefully more milestones will be celebrated in the future.

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