This enterprise can be traced to Hartley, Wood & Co, which was a merchant and ironmonger.  It was listed in 1811 as Hartley & Wood at Workhouse Croft.  The partners were Joseph Hartley, Benjamin Rose, Richard Wood, and John Dearden.  Joseph Hartley had been baptised on 2 August 1771, the son of Joseph (a cutler).  The partners ended their arrangement in 1812, when the firm began trading as Hartley, Dearden & Co.   In 1815, Dearden died and by the following year Hartley, Linley & Co was listed as a merchant at Paradise Street.  It later moved to Workhouse Croft.  The partners included Joseph Hartley, James Linley, and Thomas Watson.  Joseph Hartley, ‘merchant’ of North Street, was buried at St Peter & St Paul churchyard on 15 February 1821, aged 49.   His administratrix, Roda Hartley, and James Linley and Thomas Watson, dissolved the partnership.  Linley & Watson continued at Workhouse Croft as merchants and factors, and cutlery manufacturers of table knives and forks, files, patten rings, wholesale ironmongers, steel converters and refiners.  This business was dissolved in 1827, though James Linley continued to trade in steel and various types cutlery at Workhouse Croft.  He died in London of ‘inflammation of the lungs’ on 10 January 1837, when he was aged 49.