The Champions were scissors smiths from Attercliffe, who can be traced to John Champion (granted his Freedom in 1712, aged 21).  His son, John (F 1753), had two sons – David (F 1773) and Isaac (F 1785) – and the trio gained experience in steel scissors manufacture with Robert Hinchcliffe.  David Champion (c.1751-1817) launched his own business in either 1780 or 1791.  He became the partner of Ebenezer Rhodes in Rhodes & Champion, which was listed in 1797 in the Wicker as a fine scissors maker (trade name ‘VILLE PION’).  David Champion died on 22 April 1817, aged 66, and was buried in St Paul’s churchyard.  His son, Thomas Champion (bapt.1772-1843), received his Freedom in 1796.  Thomas, too, partnered Rhodes.  But in 1817, Champion, Rhodes, & Champion was dissolved.  By 1822 (when he became Master Cutler), Thomas was listed as a merchant in Eyre Street.

In 1825, Thomas Champion & Son was listed in directories as a maker of fine scissors, razors, and table knives.  Subsequent directories suggest that the ‘Son’ was Thomas Champion Jun. (born in 1809).  In 1826, the firm registered a silver mark from High Street, where it occupied the shop of Nowill & Kippax (which had passed briefly into the hands of James Crawshaw).  In 1828, Thomas Champion & Son took out a four-page advertisement in The Sheffield Directory and Guide, which gave its address as 37 High Street and stated that it had been established ‘upwards of 70 Years’.  Among various ‘novelties’ was the Rhodes & Champion frame-bladed razor (sometimes believed – debatably – to be an early version of the safety razor); and pen and sportsman’s knives made by Crawshaw.  According to Sir Richard Phillips (1829): ‘Messrs Champion are esteemed the best makers of scissors.’ In 1832, Champion’s sold its retail business to Crawshaw, though it remained listed as a merchant and manufacturer at 39 High Street.  In 1834, however, Thomas Champion & Son was bankrupt, and its stock of scissors, cutlery, hardware, and warehouse fixtures was sold (Sheffield Independent, 22 November 1834).  Thomas Champion – in Leader’s words, ‘a kind and worthy man’ – died on 13 April 1843, aged 71, and was buried in St Paul’s Churchyard.  Thomas Champion, ‘formerly of Sheffield’ and presumably Jun., died of cholera in Toronto on 7 August 1854.  His wife had died there three years previously (Sheffield Independent, 17 May 1851, 2 September 1854).

The firm was resurrected as Thomas Champion & Co, with an address in 1837 in Russell Street, and then in 1841 in Broad Lane.  It was directed by Thomas Champion Sen.’s daughters:  Ann (bapt.1798-1863), Jane (1810-1870), and Martha (1816-1895).  In 1838, it is said that Ann travelled to London for the first orders.  In the Census (1851), she told the enumerators that she (and her sisters) employed 16 men and 4 women.  At the Great Exhibition (1851), the firm displayed a dozen ornate scissors, one of which is in Cutler’s Hall and measures some 27-inches (684mm).  The display was ill-starred: at the Exhibition the cabinet key was lost; and all but the pair at Cutler’s Hall were later stolen and never seen again.  The company exhibited at the London International Exhibition (1862), when the firm employed six men, two boys, and two women (with another nine men and three women employed part-time).  After Ann’s death in Broad Lane on 19 December 1863, aged 65, the sisters’ interest in the business waned.  Jane died on 28 January 1870, aged 59.  Martha died in Travis Place on 1 February 1895, aged 78, leaving £395.

A fresh input into Thomas Champion & Co was provided by a family connection.  In 1836, Samuel Walsh (c.1803-1880) was married in Sheffield to Sarah Champion (1805-1874).  Samuel had been born in Bulwell, near Nottingham, and became a secretary to the Gas Light Office in Sheffield.  Sarah was another daughter of Thomas Champion and his wife, Elizabeth.  The couple were living in Gell Street in 1841, but within a few years had moved to Birmingham.  They had several children and two of their sons – Thomas Champion Walsh (1836-1862) and George Nelson Walsh (1841-1892) – joined the Champion scissors firm.  By 1861, they were living in Broad Lane and working as clerks.  Thomas Champion Walsh died on 18 October 1862, aged 26.  But his brother stayed with the firm and during the 1860s became the senior partner.  In the Census (1871), he described himself as a ‘fine scissor manufacturer’ employing 18 men, 6 boys, and 2 women.  By 1881, the workroll was 21 men, 5 women, and a boy.  He resided at Western Bank and died on 31 December 1892, leaving £2,337.

The management passed to George Nelson Walsh’s son, Robert Laurie Walsh (1869-1925).  Champion’s Broad Lane workshops continued to specialize in fine scissors, besides razors and pen-knives.  These were marked with the letter ‘C’ in an oval.  Robert L. Walsh died on 29 November 1925, leaving £5,714.  Champion & Co was still a traditional backstreet business, but in the interwar period it was reinvigorated by another generation of the Walsh family.  After his father’s death in 1925, Robert Laurie Walsh (16 December 1902-1 January 1995) became the owner of the firm.  He had worked initially in the tool room of a steel company and had then joined Sheffield Cardboard Box Co.  In 1933, he moved scissors operations to larger premises at Petre Street, named Champion Works.  He introduced ‘line production’, though some processes such as glazing and bow dressing (shown above) remained manual jobs (Ironmonger, 27 May 1939).  With a vigorous marketing campaign, Walsh launched the firm’s ‘KUMFI-CUT’ cellulose-handled scissors range, which included kitchen, surgical, novelty, hairdressers’, manicure, and fancy hand-forged scissors. 

In 1941, Champion (Scissors) Ltd was incorporated with £15,000 capital.  The firm employed about 80 workers at Petre Street.  After 1945, Walsh opened a plant in Hoyle Street and factories in Mexborough and Barnsley.  He developed Champion (Scissors) Ltd into one of the largest European makers of scissors.  In 1950, he sold the business to the American Ekco Group (which owned the ‘Prestige’ brand and traded in the UK as Platers & Stampers Ltd), though he stayed on the board as a director.  He was Master Cutler in 1953.  After a spell of farming in the Bakewell area, Walsh returned to industry to direct G. W. Thornton and Sanenwood.  Champion’s was bought by Wostenholm in 1957, when the Mexborough factory employed about 80 workers.