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Berkley Uncles & Sons, ironfounders etc
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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The Trowbridge Road works; Berkley Uncles is in the distance, wearing a straw boater hat
Berkley Uncles (1858-1937) took over the Trowbridge Road works from his former master for whom he had been working for 18 years, when George Milsom retired in 1889. He was a son of James Uncles, a boot and shoe maker and one of Berkley’s brothers, Mark, continued in that line with a shoe shop in Market Street. In 1911 the firm’s name changed to Berkley Uncles & Sons
Although the works continued to produce many items of cast iron, especially street furniture for the Urban District Council, Berkley Uncles & Sons traded to a large extent in agricultural machinery.
After Berkley’s death in 1937 three sons, Nelson Howard, Berkley James and Henry Stanley, continued the business. It closed down in the 1960s.
Berkley James Uncles (left) on a trade stand at the Frome Cheese Show or Bath & West Show
A cast iron water supply stop valve cover made by Berkley Uncles; many of these still can be found in Bradford’s streets
Also in the streets are Uncles gully gratings; this is in Limpley Stoke
Fencing with cast iron posts on the river side of the Bridge Street car park would have been amongst the earliest work of Berkley Uncles’ solo career in 1897
Among Uncles’ agricultural products is this cattle drinking trough, in a field in South Wraxall; another is near the Leigh Park crossroads
and a pig feeding trough that was used at Church Farm, Atworth and is now in the Museum