British Made Luggage and Travel Accessories – British Made Trunks – British Made Suitcases – British Made Rucksacks – British Made Wallets – British Made Bags – British Made Small Leather Goods and handbags

The modern traveller, hiker or person about town can still carry or ship the right bag or luggage; a British-made bag, rucksack, suitcase or trunk. In no particular order, here are some great British made bags, handbags, rucksacks, backpacks, suitcases, wallets, pouches and trunks.

A vintage made in England suitcase. You will find the choice of reasonably priced British made suitcases nowadays to be very small indeed, but there are still plenty of British made bags, overnight bags, luggage tags, trunks, wallets, rucksacks and travel accessories out there. Photograph by author.

British Made First Aid and Survival Kits – Survival Gear – Medical Kits – Medical Supplies – Face Masks – Ropes and String – Military Equipment

If you’re buying or putting together a first aid kit for home or work, buying first aid supplies or putting together a survival kit, do try to buy British.

If you are ordering a first aid kit for your workplace, ask your supplier about the provenance of both the container and the contents and insist on getting British made for both.

It may take a bit of research to find British made.  Here is what I have found so far.  If you find more manufacturers and supplies please let me know.

Are the Office Supplies and Stationery in your Workplace, School, Club, and Home made in the UK? Plus British made fridge magnets

British made stationery.

Manufacturing in the UK allows companies to control supply, guarantee quality, offer flexibility and to be ethical and environmentally sound.

You and your company or organisation or club or school or university can support British companies and British jobs and be environmentally friendly (by reducing your carbon footprint through reducing the miles goods are transported) by buying British at home, at work and for school.

A good starting point is to buy only British made stationery (pens, pencils, staplers, paper clips, scissors, paper, files, etc.).  Don’t order stationery unless you know where it is made.  Refuse to buy cheap foreign made stationery.  Buy British stationery for your workplace and home and it will last longer and so save you or your company money long term.  Most stationery these days is foreign made but you can insists on buying British made stationery.  Just say 10 years ago most stationery was made in the UK, but sadly this is no longer the case.Most stationery these days is foreign made but you can insists on buying British made stationery.  Just say 10 years ago most stationery was made in the UK, but sadly this is no longer the case. We all know those cheap Chinese made staplers don’t last 5 minutes, whereas the old made in England stapler that has been floating around your office since who knows when is still going strong!  My old made in England Rexel stapler is superb quality; modern Chinese made Rexel staplers are very poor quality and do not last very long at all before they are broken.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author. Base view 1.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author. Base view 2.

A vintage box of made in UK Rexel No.56 staples. Sadly Rexel / Acco staples are now foriegn made. Photograph by author.

British Made Shoe Laces, Boot Laces, Insoles, Shoe Brushes, Shoe Protectors and Shoe Polish

UK Made Shoe Laces, Boot Laces, Insoles and Shoe Polish

Fabmania: Quality British made shoelaces and bootlaces

Fabmania –  http://www.fabmania.com – The largest manufacturer of laces in the UK – Order shoe, boot and trainer laces direct from their website.

They also sell round elastic cord online and (in minimum quantities) made to order braid and cord, tape, ribbon, woven tape, elastic and webbing, piping, treasury tags (India tags), etc. – all made at their factory in Leicester.  Fabmania were previously named Hancock and Roberts Ltd.

Fabmania 4mm laces for boots and trainers, 31.12.12

Fabmania 3-4mm round laces for trainers and shoes, 31.12.12

Bicycles, frames and bike accessories made in the UK – British made bikes, British made bike parts and British made bike equipment

If you owned a bike in the 1980s or before in the UK, it was probably British-made. If you own one today, most likely it’s made abroad.

My 1980s Falcon racing bike was made in England. It is superb quality and a rides like a dream despite its age. Falcon Cycles is still going. The company owns and sometimes uses a number of different former British bicycle brands including Elswick, Hopper, Holdsworth (the Holdsworth brand is also used by Far East manufacturer Planet X Bikes), Falcon (once the second largest bicycle manufacturer in the UK after Raleigh; the factory in Barton-on-Humber closed in the mid-1980s and production was moved to nearby Brigg; in 2006 Falcon ceased UK production entirely, but by this time only a few high end bikes were being assembled in the UK by Falcon and most Falcon bikes were already being made abroad, since about 2002), British Eagle, Coventry Eagle (also previously a motorcycle manufacturer), Townsend, Wearwell and Claud Butler. The same company (Tandem) now owns Dawes cycles (the Dawes factory in Tyseley, Birmingham closed down in around 1990 and production was moved to the Far East) too. Like Raleigh Cycles, Falcon and Dawes (Tandem) do not make bikes in the UK nowadays, all their bicycles now being foreign made.

Be First on a Falcon, a 1950s adevrtisement for Falcon Cycles