Alldays Peacock —— the current incarnation of Alldays & Onions —— traces its roots to family of craftsmen named Onions who manufactured bellows in their shed in the shadow of Dudley Castle in the Midlands area of England. That was in 1625 during the reign of King James the First.
Soon after I acquired the Alldays & Onions hammer and while I was still contemplating how to move it to my shop, a Helpful Person at Alldays Peacock kindly sent me full installation blueprints, a photocopy of the original owner's manual and some other material. That helped me avoid many expensive and frustrating mistakes in setting it up. And I promised to get back to that Helpful Person when the hammer was in operation.
Alas, the project of refurbishing and powering the hammer took much longer than anticipated. Time passed, the world turned. And when I finally tried to report back to the Helpful Person , Alldays Peacock had become part of a larger corporate group with a different public interface. All old email addresses failed and all other efforts to contact the Helpful Person were, until recently, to no avail.
But further efforts have been in progress, most particularly the volunteer exertions of a gentleman encountered on the net and resident not so very far from the Alldays Peacock plant. That Even More Helpful Person hand-carried some correspondence on CD to the plant and handed it over to bemused staff. After a longnish interval, I've heard from Alldays Peacock/Witt & Son UK. The original Helpful Person has left the firm but at least I was able to express my gratitude to the present managing director for the blueprints and for the wonderful history of the company, a copy of which they have generously sent me.
Thank you, Alldays Peacock!