One of Bradwell's most distinguished sons was Samuel Fox, the founder of the extensive works at Stocksbridge, in Yorkshire, who died in February, 1887.

This lad, born of humble parents, attained not merely local, but a world-wide reputation. He was the son of William Fox, a weaver's shuttle maker, who carried on his humble avocation and lived in a cottage in Water Lane.

He was born in June, 1815, and served part of his apprenticeship to the wire trade at Hathersage and the remainder near Sheffield.

Being an exceedingly sharp lad, he allowed no opportunity for advancement to escape him, and on attaining manhood commenced business on his own account in an old mill in a secluded valley [Stocksbridge] with but few houses in the neighbourhood.

For some years his operations were on a limited scale, but his energy and perseverance soon told, and one development succeeded another with such rapidity that his workmen were soon to be numbered by hundreds, and afterwards by thousands. This big concern was converted into a limited company, with Samuel Fox as chairman and managing director, and the name of this Bradwell lad is known the world over as the inventor of Fox's Paragon Umbrellas.

A humorous scribe once wrote: "I should say that Mr. Fox had the Peak to thank for some of his commercial success. He was born in the Peak. There the rain-clouds are always gathering. What more natural than that Mr. Fox should turn his attention to umbrellas? He was not one of the umbrella-making chiefs of Thibet, but he was the umbrella-making chief of the world - he was the world's friend, for his paragon frames have and do still shield people of all nations from the wet. They have served other useful purposes too - they have stopped mad bulls, beat dogs, and thrashed erring husbands; and an old Quakeress had such faith in them that, when one of her servants was emigrating, she gave the girl one of Fox's paragon frame umbrellas and a pair of thick boots, saying: ' Now, Martha, if thou must emigrate thou had better take these. Cling to thy umbrella. It will be a comfort to thee when it's wet. and when it's dry thou may want it to drive off some man.'"

With the anxiety attendant on the management of one of the biggest manufacturing concerns in England, Mr. Fox always took a kindly interest in his native place, and assisted many of the natives to good positions in life. A more hardworking couple than Mr. and Mrs. Fox in their early days it would be impossible to find.

He was a frequent visitor to his native place, took interest in most things connected with it, and for many years he regularly sent large sums of money which were expended at midwinter in household requisites for the poor. These charities were sent anonymously, and it was only a few years before his death the actual donor, though long suspected, became known to the people. In many ways he exhibited his attachment to the village under the shadow of the hills where he first saw the light, and at last bequeathed £1,000, the interest to be given to the poor of Bradwell for ever.

There are many memorials of several generations of the family in their old burial place at Hope, one of which this famous man erected to the memory of his parents. He also erected a memorial to his sister, Mrs. Adam Hill, in the Bradwell Wesleyan Cemetery. His only son, William Henry Fox, Esq., J.P., D.L., of Bradwell Grove, Oxfordshire, was High Sheriff of that county in 1883-4.

Seth Evans, 1912

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