It is 200 years since John Pigney was first recorded as running a smithy in the Eden Valley.  


Two centuries later his descendants are still serving the local community via the well-loved family business H Pigney & Son, in Appleby. 
Local records document John Pigney as running the blacksmiths in 1824, although it may already have been established some time before this.  
The business was passed down the generations, based variously in King’s Meaburn, Newby and Crosby Ravensworth, with the fifth generation Henry Pigney moving to Howgate Foot, in Appleby, in the 1930s.  
His son Maurice joined the business in 1950, which became known as H Pigney and Son, the name it still bears today.

It moved to its current retail premises on Chapel Street in 1961, and in 1972 bought the adjoining St Lawrence’s Church School to accommodate a horticultural showroom and agricultural stores.  
In 1981 Maurice and his wife Ena also expanded into the old Kingdom Hall next to the agricultural store to start a hardware and ironmongery shop. Maurice’s son David took over in 1997 alongside his sister Margaret. 
Today the business is in the hands of the eighth generation, with David still working in it as managing director alongside Margaret, as well his wife Linda, daughter Anna, son Chris and Margaret’s son Isaac. 

(Image: WittWoo)
“It feels like a great sense of achievement to be part of such a long-standing family firm, and when looking back in the archives it is great to see local farm names that are still going strong today,” said Anna.  
Over the last 60 years H Pigney and Son has expanded to sell a wide range of agricultural machinery, as well equipment for horticultural and forestry industries.

It also sells garden machinery, as well as running an old-fashioned, attended petrol station alongside its hardware and ironmongery shop.

The business also sells a range of quad bikes and has an online store listing 10,000-plus products. 
The family built a warehouse on the outskirts of Appleby in 2002 to house its growing range of agricultural machinery.

“Some say that you shouldn’t work with family and although it can be difficult at times, I’m sure none of us would have it any other way – we all have our own roles  along with over 20 other staff members. It just works,” said Anna.