I only read the Warrington Chest book recently and have not been on this forum long so hope this maybe of interest. My great grandfather set up as an iron founder in Ancoats, one of the roughest parts of Manchester, around 1890. The factory was demolished in the mid 1960s and my father, who was then running the business, moved to another factory in Walkden, Greater Manchester. I went to the Ancoats factory a few times when it was closed for holidays and remember clearly the store of patterns. Some were quite small , probably parts for machines, but some were huge wheels and gears. I think these were for lifts and brick making machines. The factory was a relic of past times, being very dirty with broken windows and piles of scrap metal all over the place. I got to operate the overhead crane, which was fun.
My father did woodworking as a hobby, making fitted cupboards and cabinets for the house. He must have bought some of the pattern makers tools home when the Walkden premises had to close in the late 1970s. He had a set of Varvill and Son hollows and rounds, paring gouges, turning chisels, pattern makers vice and a Stanley 51,52 shooting plane ( as mentioned my Devmeister) . There wasn't a chest, only one of the sliding trays. He had a wall mounted cupboard in the garage that he kept some tools in. Some years ago I had to clear the garage and when I took down the cupboard I discovered the back had been made from the sign that had been outside the factory up to 1900. As a way of using this I made a tool chest, with the sign becoming the front board.
I don't have the Stanley 51 /52 as I traded it with a dealer around 35 years ago. My father never used it as it was buried under a pile of wood. I didn't know back then how rare it was but got quite a lot of tools that were more useful.
View attachment 132094View attachment 132095View attachment 132096
