About Us
About Our Products
Here at the British Ironwork Centre, we are passionate about our products. We work with all things metal, from post boxes to garden sculptures, and sundials to stair spindles. At the core of our approach is a true love for metalworking, which is the reason our founding family has been doing it for 40+ years.
We are hugely proud of our numerous accolades, which have made us the most awarded metalworking company in the UK, however, our proudest achievement is the continuous care and attention that is the mainstay of every product we create.
Whether it is the diverse metal products we sell in our online shop or the giant sculptures displayed in our sculpture park in Shropshire, every piece the British Ironwork Centre is involved with is a representation of our passion for the craft. The many passions felt by the centre’s creator, Mr Knowles, can be witnessed through the medium of creative sculptures throughout the park.
A Family Business
The British Ironwork Centre is a family business, upholding a rich heritage in metalworking that stretches back to when our founder, Clive Knowles, first got involved in the industry over 40 years ago. Since then, the family business might have evolved somewhat, but we still maintain the same ethos, passion and vision.
It all began in the 1980s when the Knowles family were pursuing a long-standing dream - to create a business that had national significance and could contribute to social causes. With this dream in mind, an enterprise began in a small workshop in an industrial estate in the heart of Wolverhampton.
The enterprise began humbly, with Clive and his craftsmen creating a range of modest metalwork pieces. But demand quickly grew, and it became clear that a move to bigger premises would soon be necessary.
With that, the business moved to Whitehall Farm, a place that encapsulated the dream the Knowles family had for generations. The new site offered a space to grow and create that was much better equipped and was set on acres of land in a quiet rural area, surrounded by charming towns and villages. With so much land to play with, new possibilities opened up.
The concept of eCommerce was on the rise, and online customers wanted a way to view our products in the flesh before buying them. Whitehall Farm, situated on a main road, provided the perfect setting to create a ‘showcase garden’, where assorted metal garden items were displayed on-site.
This was the first seed of the current British Ironwork Centre, but the idea gathered momentum quickly. The nearby Ironbridge Sculpture Park approached the Knowles’ with the idea of creating a more comprehensive collection of metalwork sculptures which could become a proper destination.
And with that, the fully-fledged version of the British Ironwork Centre came into existence. Now, our sculpture park is nationally recognised, displaying diverse metal artworks and sculptures created by artisans from all around the globe.
Today we are still growing both in terms of the sculpture park’s footprint and our broader ambitions. We are committed to maintaining our role as a leading figure in the British metalworking industry.
Our Future
Now you know our story, beginning as a humble metalworking enterprise, to our current position as one of the most prominent figures in the UK metalworking industry. We have also curated a compelling and educational sculpture park that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. But the story does not end here. So, what is next for the British Ironwork Centre?
As we head into the future, we will maintain our steadfast commitment to utilising metalworking as a means of advancing conversations and initiatives surrounding some of the most pressing issues in our society.
At the same time, we will continue to act as a bastion of creativity and cultural enrichment, ensuring that our sculpture park is always accessible to the people who find joy in it by maintaining fair entry prices.
We will also continue to safeguard contemporary art in the UK wherever possible. Recently, for example, we incorporated 43 sculptures that were formerly hosted by the now-closed Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture into our sculpture park, ensuring they can still be enjoyed by all of our visitors.
We have no intention of slowing down when it comes to creating new plans. We have an ever-growing programme of social projects and community support programmes, all of which play an important part in what we consider our role.
We are proud of everything we have achieved so far and aim to ensure that the British Ironwork Centre continues to be a hub of innovation, education and social progress in the UK.
