Help dating machine shop photograph - somewhere in England

[treedahlia]

Only 3 of the men are suitably dressed for working in a factory
the rest have white collars and perhaps visitors to the shop floor.
from the firm's offices.
1900 - 1915 just a guess based on
the attire and premises.

[Pinetree]

Thank you all for your helpful responses.

Like japefalkes and mazi I started off thinking it might be Hawthorns because of the size of some of the items but wasn't sure that the clothing matched that era.  I hadn't spotted or thought about the electric lights!

Following up on jim1's post I compared the photograph to some in a book I have on RSAF and I have to say the attire does look very similar to that worn by workers in photographs of them celebrating success in the Boer War so late 1890s early 1900s.  I didn't think to do that before because I had decided that was the least likely option  .

Treetotal it is a postcard, sorry I did not include the back I'll upload it now.  The writing on the back is my Grandfather's but no help at all in identifying the photograph I'm afraid.  This is a feature of many that I have, I get all excited because there is writing on the back and it is often totally unrelated to the subject, travel itineraries and telephone numbers were particular favourites  .

tomkin thank you for identifying some of the machines for me.

I am now starting to wonder if the young man back right, holding his lapels could be my Grandfather.  He was still at school in 1901 and in 1911 he was an experimental engineer at an india rubber works.

Thank you all again for your input.

Pinetree

treedahlia your post just popped up, thank you also, I did think that about the clothing, no aprons etc - thought they had possibly dressed up for the photograph.

[Treetotal]

The divided back postcard was introduced in 1902 in the UK, so not too long after that date.
Carol

[mike175]

My first thought was 1920. On the right is a Shaper, next to it looks like a grind wheel driven by

 a flat belt. In the middle is a metal saw and on the left is a metal turning lathe. All reminiscent

 of a small engineering workshop.

My thoughts also. It seems too small to be either a locomotive works or a small arms factory.

Mike.

P.S. It just occurred to me that, although that type of postcard was introduced in the early 1900s as Carol says, they might have used an earlier negative for the picture 

[Sandblown]

Typically, the Centre Gauge depicted on the Postcard, is used to measure the 55° cutting angle of lathe tools, after grinding to shape, or sharpening. The lathe tool application would be, for example, the machining of Whitworth Screw Threads. The Gauge, via the depicted two triangular cutouts, is also used to check the Thread Pitch of the finished machined screw.

[jim1]

I did wonder what the relevance was of 55° until you mentioned the BSW screw.
I looked at the large cylinder lying on the floor & thought maybe a cylinder for
a steam press.
Re the postcard I don't think any later than 1910 as you don't see "for inland postage only" after
that date & certainly no later than 1918 as stamps went up to 1d.

[mazi]

For me it seems all the big lumps of metal are too large for any of the machinery I can see, made in another part of the factory and here to be fitted together.

They all have holes in them to be bolted to something else and, given the thread gauge sketch and that one of them already has four studs in, is this a small specialist dept. of a much larger factory just making studs and bolts for assembly.

Somehow I don’t think the small serviette and tea tray are relevant, except maybe to think that this photo was not a treasured possession, just a handy bit of paper to write on

Mike

[jim1]

These are standard m/c shop machines you would expect to see in any manufacturing Co.
The men could be fitter/machinists, making their own parts & fitting them.

[Sandblown]

Here is a small snippet from Wikipedia regarding the Small Arms Factory at Enfield.

"In 1866 another major expansion took place, when the watermill gave way to steampower. The total number of steam engines grew to sixteen".

I believe this could be the onsite Enfield Machine Shop, that serviced and maintained the Factory Steam Engines. Judging by some of the machinery being driven by the belt drives, steam power appears to be main source of operation. Electricity has made inroads, with respect to Shop lighting, but not yet fully capable of powering some of the heavy machinery.