Samuel Fox industrialist and inventor of the Paragon umbrella born in Bradwell.
Born in June, 1815 (died in February, 1887), one of nine children, the son of William Fox, a weaver’s shuttle maker for cottage looms. In 1842, Samuel Fox married Maria Radcliffe (born 20 January 1820) at Stannington, Sheffield. They had one son, William Henry Fox (1843–1920) who never married.
He was apprenticed to Cocker Brothers Limited of Nursery Street, Sheffield who at that time had an establishment in Hathersage. The first part of his apprenticeship was served here and the remainder at Sharrow Moor when the company moved there.
Later he went into partnership with Mr. Rose of Rivelin who traded as Messrs. William Rose & Son, wiredrawers, hackle and gill-pin makers. This partnership did not last long and Samuel Fox went on to start a business on his own account.

It is said that Samuel Fox first inspected an old cotton mill at Ecclesfield (which was working in 1797) before visiting Stocksbridge in 1840 to seek quarters at the Old Cotton Mill at Stocksbridge. Initially rented but he eventually bought the mill from Joshua Newton.

In the early days business was conducted on a modest scale and for some years was limited to wire-drawing and hackle-pins used in wool combing. White’s 1849 General Directory of Sheffield lists Samuel Fox, wire-drawer and hackle gill etc., manufacturer.

A massive change in the company’s fortune took place with the invention of the first collapsible umbrella the Paragon Umbrella.

Early umbrellas were covered with oiled skin or glazed cotton cloth and were very cumbersome and inconvenient. Stretchers were of cane or whalebone and the mechanism was continually getting tangled and the weight of the frame was a stumbling block to manufacturers.

Sanguinde a Swiss watch-spring maker had discovered a secret of tempering steel, which gave it great strength and made lighter umbrellas.
Unfortunately on the death of Sanguinde the secret died with him and Samuel Fox set to work to discover a wire for umbrella frames which would combine strength and lightness. After many trials for T-shaped, tubular and other forms of ribs and stretchers he adopted the trough-like wire of which ‘Paragon’ frames are made.

In the ‘Invention’ for 25^th March 1893 – a newspaper devoted to recording interesting items respecting inventions generally, it was stated –
Samuel Fox, by simply grooving or hollowing the metal ribs so increased the portability and reduced the weight of the umbrella that his “Patent Paragon Frame” was universally adopted.

It would appear that the patent was contested by a Birmingham firm who were makers of the tubular ribs and stretchers patented by Henry Holland. They could not however invalidate Samuel Fox’s claim to be the sole inventor of the trough-shaped wire used for the umbrellas he was marketing. However they were successful in establishing that the insertion of a round-headed pin forming the knob or tip of the finished rib was an infringement of their patent rights. The patent however only had six months to run and under the ruling of the judge sale of the Paragon Umbrella with trough-shaped ribs and stretchers had to be suspended until their patent had expired, after which he could proceed to manufacture his improved frames for umbrellas and parasols.
It was an anxious time during the litigation but this gave breathing space to develop and improve manufacturing techniques to cope with increased demand when back on the market.

This is the point where Joseph Hayward played a crucial part.
Joseph Hayward was born in 1819 in Derwent and by 1841 he was living in Hathersage. He worked for Samuel Cocker & Son at the same time as Samuel Fox. Hayward became one of Samuel fox’s first employees, acting as a draughtsman. He designed various tools for the manufacturing process.

Their friendship was so strong that there was a story amongst the old workforce that one day a worker found Hayward seated at his bench with head on folded hands fast asleep and hurried to tell Samuel Fox that Hayward was sleeping on the job. Fox simply but firmly told the informant to mind his own business with the words, “Thee go and mind thi work; he’s worth more to me asleep than thou art awaken”.

Samuel Fox hated gambling in any form and “the person of unclean lips” was not tolerated for a moment. He was said to be a man of quick temper and apt to express himself very strongly when something had gone wrong but never used expletives.

Although he moved away from Bradwell he never lost touch and for many years regularly sent large sums of money anonymously to benefit the poor, his identity only being revealed a few years before his death on 25th February 1887 in Stocksbridge.

A document entitled ‘A Century in the Steel Word, Recording The History & Activites of Samuel Fox & Company Limited’ provides much detail, too much to present here. It gives a chronological history and up to the death of Samuel Fox was as follows –

1842. Samuel Fox commenced business on his own account, his first product being wire for textile pins.
1848. commenced the making of solid steel ribs for umbrella frames.
1851. Invented the fluted section wire rib for umbrellas which he marked ‘Paragon’ and obtained a patent to cover it.
1854. Produced the first known cold rolled steel strip for the manufacture of steel pens.
1855. Commenced the production of Crinoline wire.
1860. Installed crucible melting furnaces.
1862. Commenced the manufacture of steel by the Bessemer process.
1863. First rail and billet mill laid down, also bar and hot rolled strip mill.
1864. Rod mill constructed.
1871. Samuel Fox converted his business into a Limited Company (capital £300,000)
1874. Incorporation of Stocksbridge Railway. Opened on April 14^th 1877.
1878. Tyre plant laid down.
1880. Spring shop built.
1887. Samuel Fox died 25^th February 1887

The Stocksbridge and Dictrict History Society is a mine of information on the area.

An old document produced in 1914 by Joseph Kenworthy entitled ‘The Early History of Stocksbridge and District‘ is loaded with fascinating details and this is only one of the handbooks he produced.