Historical information

Thomas and James Middleton owned the Britannia Bedstead Works and were based at the Victoria Iron Foundry in Smethwick’s Rolfe Street Birmingham England. The Britannia Bedstead Works was not a particularly large employer by local standards in 1851 it employed 80 men but it was profitable enough to enable James Middleton and his wife Elizabeth to live in a house in New Street, North Harborne, and to employ a servant.
The foundry had been in production from before 1830 or possibly earlier and had become specialist manufacturers in the Birmingham area by the 1840s making many other cast iron items at the foundry, weights being one.

Significance

An item made in England around 1850-1860 by a renowned company making items various cast iron items at its foundry in Smethwick, Birmingham.

Physical description

Weight cast iron disc black colour

Inscriptions & markings

4lb "Middleton"