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The small parts that hold a home together.

Find your aisle Open today 8–6

Sixpenny Hardware
Example Road, since 1968

A brass cup hook held between finger and thumbWe sell screws by the one, cut keys while you wait, mix paint to the chip in your pocket, and tell you straight when a job needs a tradesperson rather than a trolley.

What the counter does

Departments

A heap of zinc-plated wood screws

Aisles 1–3

Fixings

Screws, plugs, nails and bolts, sold by the one or by the box.

See fixings
Hand tools hung in rows on a pine wall above a workbench

Aisles 4–6

Tools

Hand tools that outlast the job, power tools you can try at the counter.

See tools
Hands spreading fans of paint colour cards across a table

Aisles 7–8

Paint

Mixed to any chip, fan deck or flake of old wall you bring in.

See paint
A yellow shovel, rakes and a fork lined up against a dark wall

The yard and aisle 9

Garden

Seeds, compost, hose fittings and the small parts sheds are made of.

See garden
Rows of uncut key blanks on a dark blue ground

At the counter

Keys and locks

Keys cut while you wait, locks fitted to the doors you already have.

See keys

Done while you wait

Bring the job to the counter. Most of it is finished before a cup of tea would have gone cold, and you see every cut being made.

  • Keys cut from £4.50 about 3 minutes
  • Paint mixed to a sample from £14 a litre about 10 minutes
  • Timber cut to size 50p a cut about 5 minutes
  • Glass and acrylic cut by the sheet about 15 minutes
  • Blades and chisels sharpened from £5 ready next morning
  • Lamps rewired from £18 ready in two days
The red key-cutting machine behind the counter, its guide wheel close up
A length of timber being cut to size on the saw at the back

Every aisle, front to back

  • Fixings Screws, bolts and washers on white (1,240 lines in stock)
  • Tools Pliers, a square and drill bits on a wooden bench (860 lines in stock)
  • Paint A paintbrush resting on a fan of colour cards (410 lines in stock)
  • Electrical A loose bundle of coloured wires on white (330 lines in stock)
  • Plumbing A copper pipe with a joint running down a stone wall (290 lines in stock)
  • Garden Packets of vegetable seeds laid out in rows (520 lines in stock)

Not on the shelf? If it is still made, we can usually have it here by Thursday.

Call the counter

Bring the old one in

Half a hinge, a washer worn flat, a key snapped in the lock: put it on the counter and we will find its match, or tell you who still makes it.

  1. A chrome tap with a drop of water hanging from it
    Brought inAn outside tap that would not stop dripping
    Brass tap fittings standing on a white ground
    MatchedA half-inch washer and a new brass jumper, £3.40
  2. An old brass key in the lock of a wooden door
    Brought inHalf a shed key, the other half still in the lock
    A bunch of newly cut keys on a wooden table
    MatchedTwo new keys cut from the half, six minutes
  3. A strap hinge rusted into the boards of a gate
    Brought inA gate hinge rusted through at the knuckle
    A small galvanised hinge fitted to a pale grey door
    MatchedA galvanised one with the same screw holes, £6.80
Len Hollis in his apron, magnifying glasses pushed up on his forehead

Len Hollis

Third owner, behind the counter since 2004

Len bought Sixpenny from the Ashworths, who had it from the man who named it after the two-inch nail he sold most of in 1968.

Nothing has been moved much since. The drawers still run from small to large, and someone who knows what is in them is always on the floor.

“I would rather sell you one screw that fits than a box of fifty that don’t.”

Come and say hello
Shelves of small parts in packets, priced and labelled, running down an aisle
Aisle 2, small parts from floor to ceiling

Fix-it Saturdays

Ninety minutes, one job, eight people round the big bench at the back. The tools and parts are ours, the tea is free, and you take home what you made.

Under-16s come with a grown-up. Places are held for a week after you call.

Borrow it for the weekend

A tile cutter you will use once costs more than the tiles. Collect on Friday from three, bring it back by ten on Monday; a deposit and photo ID at the counter.

Drills, saws and sanders hung on the hire wall
  • Tile cutter £40 deposit £12a weekend, £180 to buy new
  • Wallpaper steamer £30 deposit £10a weekend, £70 to buy new
  • Hammer drill £50 deposit £15a weekend, £160 to buy new
  • Carpet cleaner £60 deposit £18a weekend, £240 to buy new
  • Ladder, 3.5 metres £30 deposit £9a weekend, £130 to buy new
  • Hedge trimmer £40 deposit £12a weekend, £110 to buy new
Reserve by phone
The open shop door on Example Road, plants on the step and the window full of stock
1 Example Road, Northfield

Come in, the kettle is on

Monday to Friday
8:00–18:00
Saturday
8:00–17:00
Sunday
10:00–16:00

1 Example Road, Northfield NF4 0ZZ. Two loading bays at the back for timber and sheets; the 14 and 22 buses stop outside the door.

0113 000 0000 counter@sixpenny.example

The Saturday note

One email a month: what came in, what is on at the bench, nothing else.

Asked at the counter

Do you really sell screws one at a time?

Yes. Every drawer in aisle 2 is priced by the one, by the ten and by the box, so you buy what the job needs and not a tin of spares for the shed.

Can you match a paint colour from a chip?

Bring a flake the size of a fingernail. The scanner reads it and we mix it in about ten minutes, in any finish from flat matt to full gloss.

Do you deliver?

Within three miles on Tuesdays and Fridays. It costs £5 and is free over £60, timber and sheet materials included.

How does tool hire work?

Reserve by phone, collect from three on Friday and return by ten on Monday. We take a refundable deposit and photo ID, and show you how the tool works before it leaves.

Can I bring things back?

Unused and in its packet, within 30 days, with the receipt. Cut keys, mixed paint and cut timber are made for you, so they stay with you.

Which keys can you cut?

Most house, shed and padlock keys while you wait. Security and car keys are ordered in and take three to five days.

Clear plastic drawers of nails in the parts cabinet