Established in about 1876, the leading member of this enterprise was apparently Charles Gray Hallas, a butchers’ blade forger, who was born in Beighton, Derbyshire, in about 1827.   The other partners were Frederick William Flower (c. 1827-1900), Edward Pearson, and (when Flower left in 1881) Joshua Seward Searle (b. 1845).  Flower was a solicitor’s cashier and Searle a leather dealer, so presumably they provided capital rather than cutlery expertise.  The company was based at Charlotte Works, Charlotte Street, and in the directory of 1879 it was listed as a maker of Bowie, dagger, spear-point, and hunting knives.  In the 1881 Census, Hallas was living in Daniel Hill, Upperthorpe, and enumerated as a table cutlery and wool shear manufacturer, employing a dozen men.  In 1881, Hallas, Flower & Pearson was dissolved.  In 1891, Hallas was a shoe-knife manufacturer living in Daniel Hill.  He died there on 11 July 1896, aged 69, and was buried at Wardsend Cemetery.   He left £3.