This cutlery and electro-plate manufacturer first appeared in a directory in 1922.  The address was 82 Backfields in the town centre.  The partners were two silver finishers, Ernest Ibbotson (1884-1958) and Alfred Charles Gosling (1879-1955).  Ibbotson was from the Park district and the son of Joseph, a file forger, and his wife Annie.  Gosling was the son of a joiner (and also the father of K. Gosling.  It is not known why the business was so named.  In 1925, Clark & Co (Sheffield) Ltd was registered at 82 Backfields, with £3,000 capital (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 18 August 1925).  In this venture, the original partners were joined by Charles Rickwood Bordycott (1889-1977), who lived in north London.   Bordycott had been born at Berkhamstead and had been a draper’s buyer, but had evidently branched into selling cutlery.  Perhaps he intended to act as agent for the Sheffield firm.  However, this company was wound up in the following year.  
 
Ernest Ibbotson resumed trading as Clark & Co.  In 1929, he advertised as the sole proprietor, manufacturing spoons, forks, and cutlery.  By 1933, the business was known as Ernest Ibbotson’s (then later simply as Ibbotson’s).  The London Gazette (27 April 1934) reported the bankruptcy proceedings in Sheffield of Bordycott & Clark Ltd, but did not provide any details on the firm or its partners.  Ibbotson continued to trade into the 1950s.  His probate recorded that he died on 17 February 1958 at 82 Backfields.  He had lived at Brooklands Crescent at Fulwood.  His estate was valued at £5,500.