The firm of Henry Lane Ltd was formed in England over 150 years ago, producing a vast range of traps with jaw sizes ranging from 2 ½” through to the double spring Lion trap or Bear trap with 18” jaws and weighing 100 Lbs.

 In the year 1920, Henry Lane (Australia) began manufacturing traps in Newcastle NSW. The first traps made appear to be the wire spring types known as the  Newcastle and the 1914 Pattern, the latter also appearing in a conventional flat spring version. These were followed around 1923 by the “Lacargo”, this being a wire spring trap similar to the previous two, and deriving its name from the surnames of the three original directors of the Company. Lane, Carr and Goninan. 1923 also saw the signing over of three British Patents, 9546, 9698 and 14251, to Lane (Aust), covering improvements in securing the wire spring to the base.

 In 1925 Lanes introduced two new traps, the Lanes wire spring and Lanes flat spring. The wire spring version appeared similar to the previous models, with minor cosmetic changes such as the plate hinge, etc. On the other hand, the Flat Spring; as its name implies was fitted with a large flat spring, attached to the base with two rivets. Appearing in two models, the trap fitted with a normal sized plate was replaced with one that was smaller and was to remain on all subsequent productions until about 1934. Other improvements included a spring-loaded snubber chain link, added about 1927, and was free to slide along either arm of the spring; this was remedied in 1928 by Carr’s Patent No. 16571/28, which allowed for a pressed metal clip to retain the link at the bend of the spring. Another feature of the patent was a new swivel peg, the chain being held between two “crimped on washers” at the head of the peg. These improvements resulted in the Lanes 1928 Pattern; it being replaced a short time later by the Lanes 1929 Pattern, with a re-designed swivel peg. This trap was also complimented with a wire spring version of the same name and was in production until supplements by the Lanes 41 Pattern. The 41 pattern was identical except for the absence of the snubber and produced in both styles as before.

 Around 1934 saw the biggest improvement in traps with the introduction of Lanes Ace, the credit of which must go to Kenneth Royle & Co, who manufactured it under the name of “KR” until Lanes bought his tooling after he fought a law suit from The Animal Trap Co in America, this was over a patent infringement. A trap known as Lanes KR appeared around 1937 and was identical with the ACE, except for the plate marking of a raised KR in a Diamond.

 With the view of eliminating sand under the plate Lanes introduced the “47 Pattern”, his model had a larger plate turned down along its edges, the design of which was registered in 1948. Lanes eventually became Lane Amalgamated Hardware Co, with works at Sydney, Adelaide and Newcastle.

 Foot note. Henry Lane himself came out from England to set up Lanes of Newcastle, when he was satisfied with production he sent his son out to Newcastle to take over operations, unfortunately he only lasted six weeks, you see Lanes son was taken by a shark off Nobbys Beach, a plaque to this effect can be located at Nobbys Beach today.