William Walton was a leading manufacturer of butchers’ steels.  It was apparently established in 1795 by William Walton (c.1784-1868), who was first listed in 1841 in Trafalgar Street.  He died on 4 August 1868, aged 84, and was buried in Ecclesfield (leaving nearly £3,000).  The firm was continued by his son, William, who in 1861 employed four men.  This had increased to eight or nine men and boys by 1881.  According to The Ironmonger, 14 September 1878, in butchers’ steels ‘no one has attained to greater success of late years’.   Output averaged 2,000 articles a week.  William died on 3 November 1878, aged 74, leaving £5,839.   William Sen.’s other son, George, had died on 9 September 1873, aged 51.  Prior to the First World War, the business moved to Arundel Street; then to Rockingham Street in the interwar period; and in the 1950s to Sterling Works, Matilda Street.  It became ‘Ltd’ in 1958.  After merger with Jones & Longbottom, it was absorbed by Egginton and dissolved in 2005.