Maker record
Chad Valley
Chad Valley is a British toy maker whose products developed from paper and card games into teddy bears and soft toys, dolls, board games, tinplate vehicles and clockwork trains. The Chad Valley trademark was registered in 1897, and the company adopted the name in 1920. In the 1930s, its range included detailed railway and shipping models, clockwork trains and toys made from Bakelite. The company’s history links its paper-based games with later manufacturing at its Harborne and Wellington works.
- Founded
- 1897
- Countries
- England
- Locations
- England · Wellington, Shropshire · 1920 · Harborne, Birmingham
- Founders
- Joseph Walker Heap
The story of Chad Valley
Chad Valley grew from a printing and games business associated with the Johnson family. The V&A Museum of Childhood records that Johnson Brothers added games to its stationery range and registered the Chad Valley trademark in 1897. The company added teddy bears and soft toys in 1915–16. In 1920 it opened the Wrekin Toy Works in Wellington, Shropshire, and adopted the name The Chad Valley Co. Ltd. The Woolworths Museum traces the Johnson Brothers business to Birmingham and describes the Harborne works, whose name came from the valley of the River Chad.
The company expanded beyond paper and card games. In 1931 it acquired Peacock and Company, bringing tinplate products such as toy cars and clockwork train sets into its range; it also experimented with Bakelite. The V&A records a Royal Warrant in 1938 and a takeover by Palitoy in 1978. Woolworths later acquired the Chad Valley trademark, dated to 1988 by the V&A. The Woolworths Museum describes the brand’s revival under Woolworths and its later use as an Argos brand.