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The GKN Collection
Winterbourne has strong links with Guest, Keen & Nettlefold (GKN) through John Sutton Nettlefold, whose grandfather founded Nettlefolds in the 1820s. John himself worked for the family firm at the start of his career, and his brother continued as a Director following Nettlefolds’ merger with Guest & Keen in 1900.
Winterbourne has been collecting items relating to GKN for many years, and in 2019 we received a significant donation of archival material from GKN. This remarkable collection contains catalogues, minute books, photographs and much more. You can read a blog post by a University intern about the collection here.
One of GKN’s major subsidiaries was Joseph Sankey & Sons. One of our volunteers made a detailed study of a Sankey catalogue in the collection and you can read her blog post here.
You can explore Winterbourne’s connection with GKN in our exhibition, ‘Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds: Treasures from the Archive’ on the first floor of the house. This exhibition was drawn from our GKN collections, and you can read more about the development of the exhibition here.
The GKN collections can be searched online via the buttons below:
If you are researching any aspect of Midlands industrial history, and would like to make a research visit to view items from the GKN collection, please send an enquiry via our contact form and our Curator will get in touch to arrange an appointment.