Of a type known as the "English Mandrel" and "Swiss Universal" the J & T Jones lathes was made in Prescot, a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside. Unknown to the present residents, the town was, from the late 1700s into the late 1800s, once the centre of a thriving high-class manufactory of watches, clocks and associated equipment. We learn from the town's archive that watchmaking was introduced into Prescot by a Huguenot refugee from France called Woolrich. The skills were picked up by the town's blacksmiths with much of the the work being carried out in private houses. One of the best watchmakers (a man who also held the town's position of constable and overseer of the poor) was one John Aiken who, in 1795, said 'The town produces the best in the world.'
The watch trade in Prescot developed until there were hundreds of small workshops where either parts were made, or watches constructed from parts organised within assembly trays. Hence, it is only logical that, in association with this trade, one or more makers of lathes for watchmakers would also have thrived in the area - with J & T Jones among them.
Below can be seen examples of the J & T Jones lathe with one also stamped "Grimshaw". Some have survived in remarkably fine, original condition complete with the correct hand-turned driven system, faceplate, and screw-feed compound slide-rest and hand T-rest assemblies..