The origins of Davenport-Burgess can be traced back to early generations of the Davenport family, who lived in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton in the mid 19th Century. At this time Wednesfield was well known for both key making and trap making. All kinds of traps were made in Wednesfield - including "man traps", which were mainly exported to Africa. A complete trap making workshop called Sidebothams has been re-located from Wednesfield into the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

Key making however, existed as a "cottage" industry and was often a secondary occupation for the keysmith. Early Wednesfield Parish records list a Davenport of the time as a "Publican and key maker". The keys were produced in a small workshop at the back of the public house.

In those days, everything was made by hand using simple hand tools. Even today, there is a healthy demand for duplicates of these old keys and they still have to be hand made from rough cast key blanks.

The traditional occupation of key making continued throughout the Davenport family - brothers, cousins, uncles, each with his own small workshop, and each tending to specialize in making a particular type of key. But it was not until after the 2nd World War that the firm of H. Davenport & Sons began to develop into the type of organization we know today. The firm was located in a small workshop behind a terraced house in Victoria Road, Wednesfield. During the post war years, production of malleable iron keys and key blanks was expanded to include exports to Australia and South Africa. However, with the increasing demand for locks & keys, faster methods of production were needed, and during the 1950's the fabricated welded steel blank was developed. This is now the main method of production in the UK of mortice keys and key blanks.

At the same time, the market for "cylinder" or "yale" type keys was increasing. The firm continued to develop throughout the 1960's, widening the range of keys and key blanks on offer. But the 1970's was the most significant decade in the history of Davenport-Burgess, for several reasons. Early in the decade the firm became a distributor for Dominion Lock of Montreal, who were, at that time, the worlds largest manufacturer of cylinder key blanks. In addition, Davenports became the first distributor for J & A Engineering of London - the originators of Jakey key cutting machines. The economical and easy to use Jakey automatic machine made key cutting easier and more affordable for the retailer, and with the much expanded range of key blanks of Dominion Lock, it spawned a rapid growth in the number of retail key cutting outlets.

With the rapid expansion of key cutting in the UK, came increasing competition from imported key blanks, in particular from Italy. Both Dominion Lock and the UK cylinder blank manufacturers traditionally used brass and nickel silver in their production. The steel key key blanks from Italy were beginning to provide stiff competition and lower prices. To meet this competition Davenports decided to start their own cylinder blank production, but still maintain the traditional material as brass. From an initial "one man band" in Leeds, our manufacturing plant has grown into a state of the art production facility, making over 15 million key blanks per year and providing over 90% of our cylinder and car key blank requirements.

In the mid 1970's, H. Davenport & Sons Ltd had outgrown the extended workshop in Victoria Road. The firm acquired the business of B. Burgess & Sons Ltd in Temple Bar, Willenhall. The existing premises were extended and the two companies moved in together and began trading as Davenport-Burgess. B. Burgess and Sons Ltd specialized in lock distribution and therefore complemented the traditional key & key blank business of H. Davenport & Sons Ltd.

By the end of the 1980's, Davenport-Burgess had outgrown the premises at Temple Bar. The continually expanding range of keys & key blanks, which needed to be stocked, needed more and more space. Following the acquisition of a large piece of derelict land a few hundred yards away in Wednesfield Road, a new purpose built office and warehouse was constructed on the site. Since January 1st 1990, Davenport-Burgess had been supplying from these premises a full range of keys, key blanks, key cutting machines and a complimentary range of locks and associated hardware.