Walker & Hall Silver-Plated Hip Flask, c. 1905-1920
Glass Flask with Silver-Plated Cup, Sheffield c. 1905–1920
Object Description & Function
The flask is an English glass hip flask by Walker & Hall of Sheffield, dating to around 1905–1920 and fitted with a removable silver-plated cup and screw-on, cork-lined cap. The cup is hand-engraved with the name “Fred Prosser” and the place name “Tonyrefail,” a mining village in Glamorganshire, South Wales. It also bears the maker’s mark “WALKER & HALL / SHEFFIELD / ENGLAND / 1127” on the base, along with the Walker & Hall flag emblem and the number “74,” likely a plating/gauge/batch control mark used by the manufacturer.
The Maker: Walker & Hall, Sheffield
Walker & Hall, founded in Sheffield in 1845, grew into one of Britain’s major silver and silver-plate houses, operating large-scale workshops and showrooms in London and other cities and supplying everything from tableware to personal travel and sporting accessories.
In 1853, the company employed nine people; in 1892, the number was over 2,000. The company's Electro Works building was heavily damaged during the 1940 Sheffield Blitz, though production continued until 1963, when the company merged with Mappin & Webb and Elkington & Co. to form British Silverware Ltd. Walker & Hall ceased manufacturing in 1971, although the brand was later revived as a retailer, particularly in New Zealand.
The Owner: Fred Prosser, Coal Miner
According to census records, Fred Prosser was born in 1863 in Glamorganshire and worked as a coal miner in Tonyrefail. This flask would have been a considered purchase for a miner, likely intended for formal or special occasions rather than daily use.
In the 1911 census, Fred is listed as a boarder (age 47, single) at the house of his brother Evan and sister-in-law Mary in Tonyrefail. All the men of age in the house, including Fred’s nephews aged 18 and 20, are miners. They would have worked at the Coedely (Coed Ely) Colliery nearby, a major coal mine sunk by The Welsh Navigation Steam Coal Co. Ltd. in 1901.
In 1911, being a coal miner at Coedely meant living through one of the most volatile and dangerous periods in Welsh industrial history. Life was defined by grueling physical labor underground and intense social unrest on the surface.
The miners’ workday often lasted 10 to 12 hours in cramped, dark, and poorly ventilated tunnels. Constant threats included roof collapses, flooding, and methane explosions. There were no pithead baths. Miners would walk home covered in coal dust, where the wife or family would have a tin bath waiting by the fire, with water heated on a coal stove.
In September 1910, a dispute over pay for a new seam at the nearby Ely Pit led to a lockout that eventually brought 12,000 miners—including those at Coedely—out on strike. Later that year, the unrest boiled over into violent clashes with police and the arrival of the British Army, authorized by Home Secretary Winston Churchill. By 1911, the strike had lasted nearly a year. Without wages, families faced extreme poverty and hunger before being forced to return to work in August 1911 on the owners' original terms.
By 1919, the Coedely mine employed over 1,700 people, before those numbers dropped significantly during the 1920s and 1930s. The mine closed in 1986, part of a wave of coal industry contraction during the 1980s.
A silver-plated flask like ours served several purposes common among working men of the period. A well-made personal flask was often carried for social occasions such as weddings, chapel gatherings, rugby matches, or holiday outings. For a miner earning steady wages, it could also represent a small but meaningful personal purchase—much like a good suit, watch, or pipe—associated with “Sunday best” respectability.
Photo: Colliery buildings and pithead gear at Coedely Colliery (Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales)
In the 1921 census, Fred is still single, still a coal miner, and still living with Evan and Mary in Tonyrefail. Evan has become an insurance agent, but his two sons still work down the pits. Fred died at age 92 in 1954, a remarkable age for his profession.
Summary
This Walker & Hall hip flask represents a well-made example of early twentieth-century English silver-plated travel ware, produced by one of Sheffield’s most prominent manufacturers and preserved with its original owner’s name and home village engraved on the detachable cup.
Census records identify Fred Prosser as a coal miner living in Tonyrefail, Glamorganshire, during the height of South Wales’ industrial coal era. His life and occupation place the flask within a community defined by demanding labor underground and strong traditions of working-class respectability above it.
Taken together, the evidence situates the flask within the everyday material culture of the Welsh coalfields in the early twentieth century. It stands as a small but tangible link between Sheffield manufacture, the mining communities of Glamorganshire, and the personal lives of the men who worked in Britain’s coal industry during its most formative period.
The Walker & Hall flask sold in June 2026. The original product listing has been retained in the shop archive.