This company was founded by William Gallimore (1824-1877), the son of William Gallimore, a German silver manufacturer in School Croft.   He was first listed in his own right in 1849.   According to The Ironmonger (12 November 1887), he launched his business in 1858 as a manufacturer of spoons and forks, and later electro-plate, nickel silver, and holloware.  By 1860, William Gallimore & Co was based at Arundel Electro Spoon & Fork Works in Arundel Street and advertised as electro platers and gilders (apparently the firm had started electro-plating in 1858).  Gallimore’s also sold fish and dessert knives, and even glass and French timepieces.  It registered a silver mark in 1867.  However, in 1868 retailing ceased and Gallimore henceforth concentrated on manufacturing (Sheffield Independent, 12 May 1869).  William was helped by his son, John Gallimore, until about 1872.   Two years later, the firm advertised that it was ready to execute rolling for the Britannia metal and silver trades.

William Gallimore Jun. died on 19 July 1877, aged 53, at Leavy Greave, Glossop Road, and was buried in Ecclesall.  He left under £20,000.  Between 1877 and 1890, the firm was directed by executors until the next generation – Henry Gallimore (c.1851-1932) and Herbert William Gallimore (1865-1917) – could direct the company.  In 1890, it was renamed William Gallimore & Sons and another silver mark was registered.   (James Josiah Gallimore – another of William’s sons – died, aged 36, on 9 December 1889 after falling from an omnibus.  He was buried in Ecclesall).   By the 1870s, the firm had become heavily involved in the manufacture of nickel silver, brass, and wire.  Gallimore’s supplied rolled metal sheets and spoons and forks in ‘blank’.  The Ironmonger (12 November 1887) contained a detailed description of the Arundel Street factory: ‘Four steam engines are kept going at the works, and there are twenty furnaces, each capable of turning out one ton of metal per week’.  The demand for nickel-silver for electro-plate was so great that Gallimore’s business was reported to have increased 50 per cent between 1893 and 1894, with a workroll of 200.  A third silver mark was registered in 1892.   

However, in 1901 Henry Gallimore and Herbert W. Gallimore liquidated the firm and retired.  The latter died on 20 June 1917 at Christ Church Villas in Cheltenham, leaving £508.  His burial was at the General Cemetery.  Henry – an Overseer of the Poor, a Methodist, and temperance advocate – died on 26 September 1932, leaving £1,323.  He was buried at Ecclesall.  The firm was resurrected and by 1914 the workforce was said to have been 260.  In 1919, William Gallimore & Sons became ‘Ltd’, with £100,000 capital, under the control of Walker & Hall and Barker & Allen Ltd, of Birmingham.   It launched ‘Gallimore’s Stainless’ nickel alloy, which was used by firms such as Ashberry.  In the interwar years, Gallimore’s was managed with only moderate success by Robert Walker Girdwood, Henry’s son-in-law (information from Marianne Morgan).   Gallimore’s remained at Arundel Mills, Arundel Street, until the 1940s.  Its final address was Stanley Street in the 1950s, when it was still making spoon and fork blanks.  The owner was L. Harrison Ltd; and the trade mark was ‘NEWLOY’.  Gallimore’s had ceased trading by the early 1960s.