Early in the reign of Queen Victoria, in a small workroom on the ground floor of a factory in Roden Street, Nottingham, Mr. Hague and his son Ben started a small engineering firm manufacturing parts for hosiery machines.
They were then joined by 2 apprentices, Harry Shardlow & George Scotton, and in 1860 a small circular stitching machine was invented. This had protruding needles and its purpose was to join the welt (top part) of a stocking to the knitted part of the leg, later to be called a linking machine.