This family of cutlers, with its local Sheffield name – either Shirtcliff or Shirtcliffe – worked in the maze of streets around Garden Street/Broad Lane/Hollis Croft.  They had been working in Garden Street since at least 1815, when Matthew Shirtcliffe, ‘cutler’, Garden Street, was buried on 16 February in St Peter’s churchyard.  He was aged 60.  Charles and Matthew were listed in 1822 manufacturing table knives in 102 Broad Lane.  Simultaneously, Joseph and Joshua were doing the same in Garden Street and Flockton Row, respectively. 

For some of the Shirtcliffes in the 1820s, cutlery took second place to running public houses.  Charles and William were known to have enjoyed debating in the pub with John Milner.  By 1829, Charles and William had moved to Garden Street.  In 1841, they were listed as manufacturers of table, palette, and dessert knives, and ivory cutters and dealers.  But at least half a dozen other Shirtcliffes were involved in cutlery and pearl and ivory cutting at that time.

Matthew Shirtcliffe, table knife manufacturer, Garden Street, died on 29 May 1841, aged 52, and was buried in St Peter’s churchyard.  The family remained active in the mid-1840s.  According to the 1851 Census, James Shirtcliffe, aged 40, was a table knife maker in Hoyle Street, employing a dozen men.  But in the 1850s, the number of family members in the trade apparently dropped significantly, with only Charles Shirtcliffe & Co manufacturing table knives in Solly Street.  Charles Shirtcliffe was not listed by 1862 and by the end of that decade few Shirtcliffes were making cutlery in the town.