The Pitchfords hailed from Upper Hallam (Sandygate/Carsick Hill).  They were yeoman farmers, who in the late eighteenth century combined this with razor manufacture.  In 1760, Jonathan Pitchford was granted a mark with the letter ‘P’, a heart, and the letters ‘FORD’.   In the 1780s, Jonathan leased Old Wheel (Loxley Plane Wheel) and also had an interest with Luke Oates in Rowell Bridge (or Darwent) Wheel, near Stannington.  Jonathan Pitchford died on 20 August 1788 at the White Bear Inn.  His son, John, gained his Freedom in 1791.

In the 1820s, William Pitchford, a razor manufacturer near Sandygate, took over the business.  In 1838, the Pitchford mark was transferred to him.  By 1841, the enterprise had moved to Eldon Street.   The partners were John and Jonathan (in 1841), John (1852), and John and William (1856).  John provided the Census with details of the workroll: between 1851 and 1881, Pitchford’s never employed more than a dozen workers and a couple of boys.  The firm dealt with Sheffield and Birmingham merchants, who shipped Pitchford’s razors to Continental countries, where the firm had a good reputation.  The mark was imitated by Sheffield makers (Sheffield Independent, 21 April 1849).  

In the late nineteenth century, the senior partners at Eldon Street seem to have been William Pitchford (razor manufacturer, Upper Hanover Street), who died on 23 January 1890, aged 66 (leaving £1,766); and John Pitchford (razor manufacturer, Meadow House, Carsick Hill), who died on 15 July 1899, aged 82, leaving £2,227.  In 1896, John Pitchford had withdrawn in favour of his nephews, Thomas (1856-1931) and Joseph Pitchford (1865-1943).  By 1907, the business address was Shude Lane, near Baker’s Hill.  The firm made razors for Marsh Bros.  Thomas Pitchford, of Strathtay Road, became the most prominent partner until 1925 (he lived at Chesterfield and died on 26 March 1931, leaving £1,346).  In 1934, the business was still in Shude Lane, with Joseph and Thomas’s son, George Stanley Pitchford (1885-1959), as partners.  Joseph died on 21 April 1943, leaving £174.  By 1945, Pitchford’s had ceased trading, though George Stanley Pitchford was listed as a razor manufacturer at Strathtay Road (he had once operated a tobacconist’s shop in Barber Road).   The Pitchfords were usually buried in Fulwood Cemetery.