This was little post was inspired by a comment made by @SliceOfLife regarding the relative availability of old Arks and Washitas in the UK. I'm sure many people will know this already, but others may find it interesting...
Welwyn Garden City is a slightly random town about an hour north of London about which I know nothing, except that in 1929 it was chosen* by Norton Abrasives to be the home of their headquarters and distribution in the UK, opening in 1931: Welwyn Garden City Heritage Trust - Gallery - Norton Grinding Wheel Ltd - https://www.welwyngarden-heritage.org/photo-gallery/category/36-norton-grinding-wheel-ltd
The reason for establishing a subsidiary company for distribution and production in the UK was effectively to exploit a tax loophole; it opened a large number of potential commonwealth (and later European) markets for Norton to trade into, without certain tariffs that would have been applied to an American company. In fact I came across this information a while back when wondering why there were so many old Norton Washitas/Arks/Indias here in Australia, and then noticed that boxed examples tended to be labelled 'Norton Abrasives - Welwyn Garden City'.
The UK facility appears to have closed in 1982, we can see here the job losses being debated in Parliament at the time: Norton Abrasives Ltd - Tuesday 13 July 1982 - Hansard - UK Parliament - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1982-07-13/debates/e674f997-1716-4086-b343-102ad523e847/NortonAbrasivesLtd
So basically... that's a lot of the reason that the UK (and probably many Commonwealth, or former Commonwealth countries) prove fertile hunting grounds for nice old Norton stones. I myself have found two old boxed Norton Hard/Translucents, and two old Washitas in the last couple of months for very little money compared to what you might pay in other countries.
* Perhaps my favourite bit of this story is the perfect nominative determinism that has Mr. Frank Emery as one of the team sent over to find a suitable production facility site.
Welwyn Garden City is a slightly random town about an hour north of London about which I know nothing, except that in 1929 it was chosen* by Norton Abrasives to be the home of their headquarters and distribution in the UK, opening in 1931: Welwyn Garden City Heritage Trust - Gallery - Norton Grinding Wheel Ltd - https://www.welwyngarden-heritage.org/photo-gallery/category/36-norton-grinding-wheel-ltd
The reason for establishing a subsidiary company for distribution and production in the UK was effectively to exploit a tax loophole; it opened a large number of potential commonwealth (and later European) markets for Norton to trade into, without certain tariffs that would have been applied to an American company. In fact I came across this information a while back when wondering why there were so many old Norton Washitas/Arks/Indias here in Australia, and then noticed that boxed examples tended to be labelled 'Norton Abrasives - Welwyn Garden City'.
The UK facility appears to have closed in 1982, we can see here the job losses being debated in Parliament at the time: Norton Abrasives Ltd - Tuesday 13 July 1982 - Hansard - UK Parliament - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1982-07-13/debates/e674f997-1716-4086-b343-102ad523e847/NortonAbrasivesLtd
So basically... that's a lot of the reason that the UK (and probably many Commonwealth, or former Commonwealth countries) prove fertile hunting grounds for nice old Norton stones. I myself have found two old boxed Norton Hard/Translucents, and two old Washitas in the last couple of months for very little money compared to what you might pay in other countries.
* Perhaps my favourite bit of this story is the perfect nominative determinism that has Mr. Frank Emery as one of the team sent over to find a suitable production facility site.
