We are extremely proud of the fact that we are the oldest independent family owned locksmiths Nottingham to be founded and still operating in the city. Originally the business was named as Lock & Safe Radford and operated out of a workshop located behind the family home on Radford Boulevard in the heart of Nottingham.

During this time period Radford was a thriving working class area with almost a factory on every street corner including the world famous sites like Players Cigarettes & Rayleigh Bicycles during this time the family business thrived providing and maintaining high security locks for factory gates and doors and installing safes and lock rooms from which workers wages would be stored and payed out from.

In the late 1970's the business had out grown its humble workshop and a dedicated shop, workshop and warehouse was opened just down the road in Lenton in a purpose built modern unit. At this point in time the business had undergone many changes, the focus on safes and there maintenance and supply was a very minor part of its overall services, Modern banking changed how workers were paid direct into their bank accounts and not the beloved brown envelopes they used to collect in person and most of the factory's had now closed or had moved production out of the area so the name changed to LS Locksmiths of Nottingham to indicate we were more then just lock and safe people but that we encompassed the whole security side for both commercial and domestic customers.

During this period of time the LS locksmiths was in the hands of two second generation locksmith brothers. With the advent of the internet the brothers saw the internet as a means to be able to offer products, services and even training online and LockSmart Ltd was born, in keeping with the original Nottingham locksmiths name the L & S stands out proud. LockSmart Ltd is LS Locksmiths just like it was once Lock & Safe Radford always evolving but keeping one thing the same, we will always offer our customers the best service at the most affordable price and for that reason our business has lasted so long and are the oldest independent locksmiths in Nottingham.

As a family we are extremely proud of the local area we first started our locksmith business and where so many of the team were born and grew up in Radford and Hyson Green below we’ve added some addition information about the area and its history.

Radford more then likely took its name of the "red ford" from the Mottled Bed Sandstone in the high cliff that is now largely removed, and which ended where the Alfreton Road crossed the river Leen by way of a ford, there was also the Ilkeston Road ford, both of which have been replaced by bridges.

We have no means of calculating when people first appeared in Radford, or houses were first built and the land cultivated. There is no proof of Roman occupation. What we do know is that it was customary with the Anglo-Saxons, when they settled, they did so round a village centre, almost always where the church then or afterwards stood, and would cultivate their lands in very large fields, without hedges, in three parts of the parish, with the land divided into strips, and cultivated under communal regulations. There would probably be a small enclosure to each house, the serfs would dwell in huts, the meadows would be near the river, and for joint pasturage, and there would be a considerable amount of land sandy waste, some of it with wood, then underwood. There was probably a Saxon church built soon after the Conquest, Radford Church and its belongings were given to Lenton Priory, but of this church there is no earlier record.

Old Radford
The original village clustered round the parish church, located next to the river Leen in what is now called St. Peter's Street. All the old wattle and daub huts, and almost all of the old houses have been demolished, but there are a few aged houses in the street named. The "White Horse" public-house had on it the date of 1661, but it has been rebuilt in later years. There is an old house at the Mill-in-the-hole. Of the small cottages, those built over one hundred years ago have had their life-time, are very defective in regard to the essentials of a house—sufficient space, air, light, water, a sink, a pantry, and sanitary conveniences. Many of them will have to be swept away.

Hyson Green
In the days of Adam the area now called Hyson Green was wild, uncultivated, sandy waste, with gorse bushes and ling, or heather, and tufts of grass. When on the night of October 19th, 1330, King Edward III. walked with a posse of men on what we now call Radford Road, to arrest Roger Mortimer, in Nottingham Castle, it was a part of Sherwood Forest waste, but probably not woody (see Deering, p. 174, and "In and About Notts.," page 64). It was afterwards a part of the "Linges," where the heather grew. A hundred years ago it was called "High Sands" (Captain Barker's "Walks round Nottingham," page 241), to distinguish it from the low sands of Radford. There is one little sample of the forest, or waste, still left at the junction of Mount Hooton and Bentinck Roads, except that now grass mostly covers the loose sand. To stub up the gorse and bushes, to get the hillocks into cultivation, and fence round, probably cost more than the previous value of the land.
The site on which the houses now stand was, after the inclosure of 1798, cultivated in ordinary fields and gardens. There was an ancient house where Pepper Street now stands. and the first modern house was built by Mr. Elliott, a joiner, around 1802. There has been much controversy as to the village name, but it appears probable that it was spelt "Ison." It is said that John Ison had gardens and built two houses, and painted on them "Ison Green." The tea garden and bowling green at the "Cricket Players" public-house was established by Mr. John Pepper about 1824, and became a place of public resort.
In any case, "Hyson" was very soon preferred, and it differed little in sound from High Sands, and "Ison" as the name of the street was changed.