George Woodhead (and his partner, Hartley) are best known for producing Bowie knives during that trade’s classic era – in other words, before the American Civil War.  The knives were classic, too, with half-horse, half-alligator pommels, coffin-shaped (but shortened) handles in pearl and ivory, and simple, clean lines to the blade.  By 1839, Woodhead & Hartley was active as a spring knife manufacturer in Bower Spring.  In 1841, the firm was listed in Lambert Street, where George Woodhead was enumerated in the Census as a cutler.  He had been born in Bradfield in about 1808.  The other partner, Joshua Hartley, was not apparently enumerated in Sheffield (though a 35 year-old cutler of that name was living in Bradfield in 1841).  By 1849, Woodhead had moved alone to 36 Howard Street.  This factory, according to a later account (Sheffield Independent, 12 November 1892), had an office, warehouse, packing room, six workshops, a grinding hull, and steam power.  In 1851, Woodhead employed 20 men, manufacturing pen, pocket, and table knives.

According to Adams et al (1990)¹, ‘You can spot [his] knives a room away’.  The company mark was GW*I above the words, ‘G. Woodhead & Son’ – later acquired by Thomas Ellin and then by Joseph Elliot.  George Woodhead continued in Howard Street into the 1860s, while living in Western Bank.  In 1881, he employed 40 men.  The firm was styled George Woodhead & Sons in 1876 and was among those listed as a specialist Bowie maker in the directory of that year.  In 1884, the firm became George Woodhead & Son.  However, George Woodhead, Western Bank, died on 14 February 1884, aged 76.  He left £1,467.  His son, Charles Henry, died in the following year (aged 37), and his wife Hannah in 1886 (aged 77).  Their remains lie in St Nicholas churchyard, Bradfield. 

^1. Adams, W, Voyles, J  B, and Moss, T, The Antique Bowie Knife Book (Conyers, Georgia, 1990)