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The brothers were Harry Wright Atkin (1828-1896), Edward Thomas Atkin (1832-1907), and Frank Shaw Atkin (1837-1901). They were the sons of Henry Atkin. Trade catalogues date the business from 1750, though this probably refers to Henry’s activities. In 1853, his sons registered a silver mark as Atkin Bros and occupied Truro Works, Matilda Street. This had been the factory of Joseph Cutts, but the Atkins’ expanded it. The company’s products included cutlery, silver and electro-plate, Britannia metal, and jewellery. In 1871, the factory employed 138 workers (78 men and boys; and 60 women and girls). A decade later, 168 workers were employed at Truro Works (over a hundred men and boys, with over 60 women and girls). Atkin Bros had various silver marks, some of which included the letters ‘HA’. It owned the name ‘TRUROX’ and a trade mark of a Fleur-de-Lys held in a hand (picture).
Like Mappin & Webb, Atkin Bros was active in the lucrative London market. Harry W. Atkin headed the firm’s operations in the capital, where Atkin Bros had an office in Charterhouse Street, Holborn Circus. In Sheffield, Truro Works was managed by Edward and Frank. After the death in 1865 in childbirth of Frank’s wife, Eliza Ann Smith, the brothers shared Highbury House in Kenwood Road (Edward was a bachelor). Harry lived at Norton Lees, Muswell Hill. In January 1889, his home was burgled by an armed gang, who shot his son, George (a stockbroker), twice in the chest (he survived). At about the turn of the century, the Atkin brothers passed from the scene. Harry died of a heart attack at the Charterhouse branch on 2 June 1896. Frank died in Sheffield on 21 May 1901, aged 63. He was buried in the General Cemetery. His son, Frank (1864-1925), who was also a partner, retired in the following year. The firm was left in the hands of Edward T. Atkin, the last surviving brother, and three sons of Harry: Harry (1862-1940), Edward (1857-1935), and Oliver (1875-1945). In 1906, Edward retired. He died in Sheffield on 5 October 1907, aged 75, and was cremated at Intake (a memorial gravestone is at Underbank Unitarian Chapel). He was recalled as a practical silver worker, who took little part in public affairs, but was a cricket enthusiast and one of the best whist players in the north of England (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5 October 1907). At his death, Atkin Bros was probably amongst the top ten silver firms in Sheffield, with a workforce in the hundreds (one contemporary estimate was 350). Certainly, the founders became wealthy. Harry W. Atkin left an estate worth £34,336; Edward Atkin £218,409; Frank Shaw Atkin £122,245; and Frank Atkin £250,434.
By 1914, when the firm was at its peak, new family managers were in place. These included Harry, Edward, and Oliver (though the latter retired in that year); and also Edward Heriot Duckworth Atkin (1886-1969?), a son of Edward, and Edward Senior (1886-1968), who was the son of Harry. They continued to run the firm in the inter-war period. In 1925, the business became Atkin Bros (Silversmiths) Ltd, capitalised at £100,000 and still privately owned. Its workforce had fallen to about 150 in 1918, but it retained a loyal core of workers. Culme (1987)1 recorded that in 1938 of 31 senior Atkins’ employees, the average length of service was over 47 years; and one man had spent 63 years with the firm. The chairman in the interwar period was Harry Atkin, who died on 18 March 1940, aged 77, at his home Meadow Bank Avenue, leaving £11,871.
In 1945, the assets of Thomas Bradbury & Sons were acquired. In the early 1950s, E. Senior Atkin was the head and was helped by his son, Harold Thomas Atkin, until the latter’s death on 20 July 1956, aged 65 (leaving £4,775). Senior Atkin retired in the following year (he died on 15 February 1968, aged 81), leaving £2,602. In 1958, Atkin Bros’ flatware dies and patterns were acquired by C. J. Vander Ltd. The holloware side of Atkins was meanwhile sold to Adie Bros, Birmingham. Truro Works was abandoned and by the 1980s was derelict. However, in the early 1990s it was renovated and became a residence for students.
1. Culme, John, The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Jewellers and Allied Traders 1838-1914 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2 vols, 1987)