Antique Locks
At Locksmith Winchester, we take pride in the specialist restoration, repair, and maintenance of antique and vintage locks. Whether you’re dealing with a 200-year-old mortice lock, an ornate cabinet lock, or a bespoke hand-forged key, our years of experience and technical understanding ensure your lock is treated with the care it deserves.
Preserving Craftsmanship
Antique locks are more than just functional—they’re a window into the engineering and craftsmanship of the past. These mechanisms often include:
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Warded locks – where fixed internal obstructions (wards) require a specially shaped key to navigate.
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Early lever locks – using spring-loaded levers to control the bolt.
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Hand-filed keys – often one-of-a-kind, made specifically for the lock.
Unlike modern systems, most antique locks were hand-built, meaning each piece is unique. This makes restoration a skilled and delicate process, involving handmade parts, hand-cut keys, and occasionally recreating components from scratch using traditional techniques.
In Stock & On Hand
We carry a selection of traditional cabinet and drawer locks, along with old-style blanks to suit period furniture. Lost your key? No problem—we can cut new ones directly from the lock mechanism itself, no original needed.
A Short History of Locks
Lock technology dates back over 6,000 years. The earliest known locks were wooden pin-tumblers from Ancient Mesopotamia. The Romans took things further, developing metal locks and introducing wards—internal obstructions that only allowed the correct key to turn.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, lockmaking advanced rapidly:
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1778: Robert Barron invents the double-acting lever lock.
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1818: Jeremiah Chubb creates the “detector lock”, able to indicate attempted tampering.
These innovations laid the groundwork for many traditional locks still found on heritage buildings and antiques today.
Your Lock, Restored the Right Way
Whether you’re a homeowner with a period property, an antique furniture collector, or a dealer needing sympathetic repair, we’re here to help. From complete refurbishments to key reproduction, we offer a service rooted in expertise and appreciation for traditional engineering.
And no—we don’t have any Roman keys in stock (yet), but we’re always up for a challenge!