About - The Worshipful Company of Turners

The Worshipful Company of Turners, successor of the Guild of Turners, is one of the hundred and two Livery Companies of the City of London. It received its Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1604 from James I and is fifty-first in order of precedence.

There is evidence that from 1347 the Guild was growing in importance. In that year, Turners were instructed by the Mayor and Aldermen to ensure that their measuring vessels of turned wood conformed to the City standards. Each Turner was to have a mark of his own placed on the bottom of such measures for identification when they were examined. In 1497, a full set of ordinances was submitted by the Turners to the Mayor, and approved. Typical of the period, these regulations for the craft guild covered the supervision and protection of the members’ trade, mutual help and charity, apprentice training and so on. The products of the Turners’ craft (based always on the lathe, the world’s first machine tool) included a variety of household, farm and maritime articles, such as legs for furniture, balusters for staircases and galleries, vessels for many purposes, pulleys, candle sticks as well as embellishments for many other products. During the eighteenth century, however, the Livery Companies were tending to decline as an economic and political force. This was an inevitable result of the expansion of trade and the increase and movement of population, which finally burst the bonds whereby the Medieval Craft Guilds had controlled their respective trades. In consequence, by the early nineteenth century, the Company was almost dying.

From 1850 however, with the infusion of "new blood" in the Court of Assistants and the Livery, the Turners Company spirit began to revive. To promote and foster interest in the ancient craft of turning, prize competitions and exhibitions were instituted, firstly in wood, and later extended to include metals and other materials. When the awards began in 1870, the prizes were presented by the Lord Mayor, who expressed the hope that this encouragement for technical education, initiated by the Turners, would quickly be adopted by other Livery Companies. Between 1870 and 1890, the award ceremonies were held annually at the Mansion House, and drew a large number of visitors. They continued, with occasional breaks and changes of emphasis for a further fifty years. These exhibitions and the award of proficiency medals to London schools, together with the distribution of lathes to numerous youth training centres, pulled the Company out of virtual obscurity into comparative prominence, helped, no doubt, by the remarkable fact that during the seventy-five years between 1874 and 1949, no fewer than eight Turners served the office of Lord Mayor.

Today, the Company’s main purpose is the support and encouragement of the craft of turning in every aspect, both ancient and modern, placing especial emphasis on technical and technological education in the cause it has championed for more than a century.

Besides its promotion of the craft through its various prizes and awards, the Company has in recent years invited professional turners to attend an annual Craft Meeting. These are seminars for discussion of all subjects of common interest and have led to the introduction of our REGISTER OF PROFESSIONAL TURNERS.

For more details about the Company, and its Bursary and other awards, please visit www.turnersco.com . There is more information about the Livery Companies in general in www.cityoflondon.gov.uk