Alfred Wainwright & Son

William Wainwright

B. Wainwright & Company

Alfred Wainwright Ltd

The Wainwrights were table knife cutlers for over a century.  In 1874, William Wainwright (1854-1922), a table knife hafter, had married Ann Harriet Foster (1856-1933). Their son, Alfred (1886-1943), became a table knife cutler, who married Beatrice Tubbs (1890-1970).  In 1911, the couple were living in Granville Lane, with their three-month old son, Alfred Jun. (1911-1969).  In 1920, Alfred Sen. helped establish W. Fuller Pilch & Co, cutlery manufacturer, Radford Street. His partner was William Fuller Pilch. But this arrangement ended in 1921, when Pilch withdrew.  By the mid-1920s, Wainwright had moved from Radford Street to 53a Jericho Street, where he traded as a cutlery manufacturer under his own name. His firm continued to market table knives, some of which were stamped ‘Firth Stainless’.  Jericho Street was filled with tenement workshops, so Wainwright’s table knife blades would have been ‘bought in’ and then hafted and polished by his employees (some of whom were outworkers). He lived at Daisy Bank – a working-class street – but by the end of the 1920s he had moved to Whitham Road.

Wainwright described himself as a ‘practical table knife cutler’, who was ‘fairly successful’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8 February 1929).  But his attempt to increase his trade by having some of his table knives marked ‘Best English Cutlery, Sheffield’ led to legal action by the Company of Cutlers. Wainwright was fined £5 and ordered to pay £5 costs, after the Company prosecuted him for what it called ‘misdescription of cutlery’ – in other words, marking his goods as ‘best’, when they were inferior in quality (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 21 March 1928).  In the same month, Wainwright’s car collided with a motorcycle combination near Lindrick. The rider of the motorcycle (Percy Haddon Skelton) was left permanently disabled due to a mangled leg. Wainwright was fined for driving without a licence, failing to stop after an accident, and for endangering the public. A court then awarded £2,100 in damages to Skelton and his daughter. Wainwright was forced to pay, after his insurers refused his claim. He told the court that he would be bankrupted (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1928). In the following year – when he was trading alongside Alfred Jun. as Alfred Wainwright & Son – he duly filed for bankruptcy, with over £2,000 debts. At one of the bankruptcy hearings, the Registrar asked sarcastically: ‘So you’re the man who makes the best cutlery?’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8 March 1929).

Alfred Wainwright & Son ceased business. However, in 1929 ‘wanted’ advertisements appeared for a ‘live agent’ with a ‘good connection’ and for women mirror finishers.  One advertisement promised ‘good wages to girls who can go all through’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 26 April, 30 September 1929). The notices were placed by William Wainwright. The address was 58 Shoreham Street (a property near the Midland Station with three workshops, an office, showroom, and two houses, which had been offered for sale in 1928).  The identity of William Wainwright is unclear; but it may have been Alfred Sen.’s brother, William (1876-1965), who was also a table knife cutler. Perhaps Alfred was relaunching his business by using family members as a ‘front’. Further evidence supports this suspicion.  ‘William Wainwright’ soon disappeared to be replaced by B. Wainwright & Co, table knife manufacturer, at the same address.  This firm was named after Alfred’s wife, Beatrice, though Alfred was the manager. Advertisements continued to ask for women workers for dollying and mirror polishing. One stated: ‘Outworkers only need apply’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 22 October 1930). 

Alfred Jun. joined the business.  In 1932, he was presented with a gold watch from employees to mark his coming-of-age (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8 January 1932).  Two years later, Alfred married Rosa née Tomlinson (1911-2019), who was a buffer girl at Wainwright’s. Alfred Jun. was described as a manufacturing cutler at Wellington Street/Eldon Street. He was once charged with receiving stolen cutlery (fish eaters and knife handles), though the outcome of the case is unknown (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1935). By the mid-1930s, B. Wainwright & Co was no longer listed as a table knife manufacturer. Instead, by the late 1930s ‘Alfred Wainwright’ was listed as a cutlery manufacturer at Hawk Works, Mary Street. It is unclear who – father or son – was running this enterprise (perhaps it was both). In the Register of England & Wales (1939), Alfred Sen. was a ‘cutler’ living in Cavendish Street; Alfred Jun. was a ‘table knife cutler’, residing at Coal Aston, Dronfield. Alfred and Rosa had a son named (predictably) Alfred.  In the 1944 Sheffield directory, the firm’s address was Hawk Works and 104 Mary Street.  It was not listed after the War.  Alfred Sen. had died at The Royal Oak, Coal Aston, in 1943. He (and later Beatrice) were buried at City Road Cemetery.

In 1948, Alfred Wainwright Ltd was incorporated as a cutlery manufacturer at Bower Spring, near Kelham Island. It was capitalised at £3,000. The directors were listed as A. Wainwright and R. Wainwright – presumably Alfred and Rosa. Henceforth, they combined cutlery with running public houses (these included The Royal Oak at Coal Aston, where Alfred’s father. had died).  The firm marketed stainless table cutlery, including knives, forks, and spoons. Alfred Wainwright Ltd apparently traded at Bower Spring until the late 1950s (it was struck off the register in 1966). 

Alfred and Rosa moved to Chesterfield. Alfred filed for bankruptcy in 1960, when he was an ‘outwork cutler’ at Burgess Street in Sheffield under the style of Alfred Wainwright & Sons. He was also a publican at the Square & Compass, West Bars, Chesterfield (London Gazette, 1 January 1960).  Alfred died at Chesterfield in 1969.  Before her retirement, Rosa found a job at Chesterfield Tube Works. She became one of the oldest women in the country (Ripley & Heanor News, 28 July 2017). She died at Chesterfield in February 2019, aged 107.