Bringing a 150-Year-Old Church Key Back to Life

By Rob Stapleton

When a churchwarden from a village near Barnsley walked through our door last summer, he was convinced his issue would go unsolved.

Builders had been in fitting an accessible toilet in his church and, somewhere along the way, the church's original key had been struck whilst in the lock and bent almost 45 degrees. He thought they'd need a new one and was unsure if it would even be possible.

We had to be straight with him – a new key isn't something you can simply order off a shelf. When a lock is pushing 150 years old, there's no catalogue entry for it. So, before we talked about making a new one, we wanted to try saving the original.

With the careful application of heat, we were able to bend the key back without it snapping, while keeping the original finish of the key, and the result left him genuinely delighted.

Following this repair, the churchwarden still wanted a spare made so that the church was prepared should something like this happen again. With a key that old, and a lock that irreplaceable, having only one is a risk they didn’t want to take.

That's where the real craft begins.

Making a period key from scratch is, at least, a two-day job, and every minute of it is earned.

We started with a preformed bow , then we used the lathe to taper a round bar, fit the handmade collar, and shape the stem. Finally, we made the bit: a precise wedge of metal that tightly clicks onto the stem before being silver soldered into place.

From there it's down to a hand key saw, a selection of files and a vernier gauge – checking every height and every width of the centre wards – before hand-cutting the wards into that characteristic box ward shape. Every cut, every form, is done entirely by hand. And it takes around 16 hours of work in total, starting from nothing but a bow and a metal bar.

It's the kind of job that reminds us why this trade matters. You can’t just fit a brand-new, modern lock onto a 150 -year-old church door – you must find a way to bring the key back to life, whether it's lost, worn, or bent out of shape.

The final process of fine tuning the key is carried out on site. Fortunately, when we opened the lock on site, it was in very good condition, so we didn’t need to look at carrying out any additional work on the lock – it was just waiting for a key worthy of it.

There aren't many people left who can tackle work this intricate – and often not many opportunities either – so it’s always really exciting when we get an opportunity to do so.

Learn more about the variety of services we offer at H Harrold and Sons or give us a call on 0114 272 4742.

Rob Stapleton has been a locksmith for 37 years and has worked with us at H Harrold and Sons as a bench Locksmith for over six years. He specialises in heritage locks along with creating locking solutions for bespoke applications and specialist key cutting.