German entrepreneurs helped to establish the English brass industry during the sixteenth century. Bristol eventually became an important centre for the production of beaten hollow-ware vessels, known as battery ware. Documentary evidence, including surnames of continental origin, suggests that the Bristol industry may also have made use of foreign expertise. This article examines the historical evidence and industrial archaeology of the mining and metallurgical industries of the Aachen area on the borders of France, Germany and Belgium and suggests that a continental workforce may have been recruited there for the Bristol industry during the eighteenth century.