Wilkinson Sword

Following yesterday’s good news for Park Royal, I was sad to hear today of the closure of the local Wilkinson Sword factory. Although, I understand that they now only employ 14 craftspeople, the company is very much a part of local and national history. Wilkinson Sword only moved to Brunel Road in Park Royal in the 1970s, but was based on a big site on Southfield Road from around 1905.

In 1908, they sold their playing grounds next door to Acton Urban District Council. This followed a campaign by Cllr Fred Shillaker – one of the first Labour Councillors in Acton and later our first Labour MP. Fred Shillaker proposed, and the Council agreed, to turn the land into the Southfield Recreation Ground – which it remains to this day. Only last month, I joined John Delaney at the opening of a new children play area in the Rec.

John Delaney opening the play area (clue - he's the one with the tie)

Possibly Wilkinson Swords’ most famous ceremonial sword was the Sword of Stalingrad. This was made by the company in 1943 to celebrate the heroic stand of the people of Stalingrad during their long siege by the Nazis, and was presented to Joseph Stalin by Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference later that year. A copy of the Sword of Stalingrad apparently toured the country during the war to big crowds, and I understand is still in the ownership of the company.

Wilkinson Sword also made the Sword of Acton – which some claim to be similar to the Sword of Stalingrad (although this may be apocryphal) – to be part of the civic insignia of the Acton Borough Council. The Sword of Acton can now be seen on public display at Ealing Town Hall, together with the mayoral chain and badge of Acton. As Millennium Mayor, I arranged for the Sword of Acton to be carried at the head of the civic procession at the annual civic ‘Crayle Service’ at St Mary’s Church in The Mount – for the first time since the abolition of Acton Borough Council in 1965.