The enterprise had been founded in about 1867 by John Greenhough, a spring knife manufacturer, who had been born in Sheffield in 1841.   In the 1870s, Greenhough occupied Latimer Works in Eyre Lane, and then by 1883 Clintock Works on the corner of Milton Street and Bowdon Street (in the same block as George Wostenholm & Sons.  As a little mester, he employed eight men, a boy, and a girl.  His business provided a comfortable home in Chippinghouse Lane, Sharrow.  The key to Greenhough’s success was the quality of his pen, pocket, desk, and sportsman’s knives, which won prize medals at exhibitions.   In 1879 (when it was based in Rockingham Street), the firm won the first prize at the Cutlers’ Exhibition in London.   A gold medal followed at the London International Exhibition in 1884.  A selection of Greenhough’s fine knives can be seen in Claussen et al (1999)¹.  A characteristic feature of some Greenhough pocket knives was the way in which the nail mark extended through the tang.   Greenhough knives always appear to have been stylish and well-made.  

Greenhough had retired from business by 1914.  He died on 25 November of that year, leaving £2,953.  The company name disappeared from Sheffield directories in the mid-1920s and the business was absorbed by John Blyde, which occupied the same site (both firms being tenants of Geo. Wostenholm).  Blyde continued to manufacture pocket knives for a time, using Greenhough’s trade mark: a Maltese Cross with the word ‘VIENA’; and a golfer (‘SURE & FAR’), which had been granted in 1893.

^1. Claussen, B, et al, Sheffield Exhibition Knives (Salem, Oregon, 1999)