Well, we were never really a big power tool manufacturer. For example the few "local" firms included:
Wolf Power Tools who started as early as 1909 and became a major manufacturer well known for the durability of their tools. After WWII they introduced what was one of the earliest DIY drills in the world, the Wolf Cub drill of 1947. This had available for it a wide range of accessories such as lathe, drill press, planer, fretsaw, circular saw, jigsaw, etc. In the 1960s and 1970s they imported and rebadged a number of Makita (trade) tools as their own (mainly power planers and belt sanders, but also for a while the early Wolf Grinderette 4-1/2in angle grinders - until they got the UK product onto the market) to fill gaps in their own range. They had a couple of failures as well, including the ill-fated Sapphire jigsaw (replaced early on by a far cheaper model sourced from probably Perles). After Gerald Wolf (son of the founder, I believe) retired from the business they merged with another famous British power tool manufacturer,
Kango in about 1982. This new business, initially called Kango-Wolf, relocated to Peterborough, but at the same time lost it's Makita-sourced tools as Makita wished to import their whole range, leaving a somewhat lop-sided range with some very old designs which they attempted to fill the gaps in by importing from various German firms (e.g smaler circular saws from Holz-Her, jigsaws from Holz-Her/Mafell, etc). They were bought by Atlas-Copc in 1994 or 1995 and merged into another couple of A-Cs purchases, AEG and Milwaukee. This led to wholesale decimation of the range (and transfer of a few products to Germany, plus closure of the Peterborough factory upon completion of MoD orders in the late 1990s) and a number of AEG tools being rebadged "Kango" for a short period. The only thing that remains of Kango these days is the name on a few Milwaukee tools. The Wolf name was sold to a bunch of cowboys from Nottingham who used it to flog second rate Chinese-made knock-offs of Japanese tools (e.g. the Makita 9403 sander) which were poor quality and not very durable. The name was subsequently bought out of receiverw=ship by another bunch who are selling yet more cheap Chinese tat. Sad end to a once proud name
S. N. Bridges who started in the 1930s became Stanley-Bridges in 1961. S-B also manufactured Stanley industrial tools in the UK - mainly US designs. They eventually moved to Cramlingham and Workington in the 1970s and were finally sold off to Bosch in the early 1980s (along with the US power tool operation). Bosch shut them down almost immediately
Arcoy was a post-WWII startupm (1955 or 1956 AFAIK) who made a very distinctive style of drill together with some famous accessories, notably their rabetter attachment for drills, dovetailer jig and drill stand/chisel mortiser as well as a self-powered portable power planer. They disappeared in about 1970. Possibly taken-over by Stanley, but nor sure
Black & Decker built a factory at Denholme in Middlesex in 1935 to produce US-designed B&D and van Dorn designs. It is often forgotten that at this stage B&D were a major industrial tool maker. After WWII B&D UK started to produce its' own versions of the U.500 T-handle drills manufactured for a short period in the USA (Americans seem not to have taken to them that well as pistol grip models replaced them within a few years) - these T-grip machines then became a British effort with design and manufacture concentrated here (and exporting into the rest of Europe until B&D set-up manufacturing subsidiaries in Germany, France and Italy (where the bought a firm called "Super Star"). In the UK production moved to Spenneymoor, Co. Durham which more and more concentrated on the better quality trade tools (e.g. the Elu cordless drills were made there as were accessories such as Elu's dovetailer jigs). Production was eventually stopped 8 to 10 years back (?)on grounds of cost. So not quite a British firm, but...
Makita, a Japanese firm opened a manufacturing facility in Telford, Shropshire in 1980 which still manufactures and exports all over the world from here. Their web site confirms that,
"Our Telford manufacturing plant is the only full-production facility for power tools in the UK and has been successfully running construction on many of our top line cordless power tools since 1991."
There were other firms, but they were insignificant and have disappeared long ago
In other tool areas we still have a few firms which make good stuff, e.g.
Abingdon-King d*ck in Birmingham (wrenches, etc)
Ashley Isles chisels and turning tools
and it's worth remembering that whilst Rabone-Chestermann were subsumed into Stanley Tools a long time ago the levels factory in Birmingham still exists and designs and makes many of the better quality Fat Max levels for both the UK and export markets
......but overall, yes, quite sad and depressing, really
