Groves’ was regarded as ‘perhaps the oldest saw manufacturers in the town’ (Leader, 1876¹).   Its establishment date was stated as 1770.  In the nineteenth century, the firm was certainly the most prolific saw manufacturer, with a reputation for quality.  The address was Beehive Works, Snow Lane and Allen Street.   The founder was Richard Groves (c.1745-1832); the trade mark was the word ‘USE’.  This had been registered in 1789 by file manufacturer Thomas Vickers, and later re-registered in 1841 by William Groves (probably Richard’s son).

The firm’s history as a saw and tool maker is described in Tweedale (2020)².  It was wound up before the First World War, when the Groves’ family relinquished control.  The name and trade mark still had value.  In the late 1920s, the name Richard Groves & Sons reappeared in directories, but this time as a manufacturer of cutlery, electro-plate, spoons, forks, scissors, and tools.  The address was Egerton Works, Egerton Street.  This was part of a tenement block, known as Exchange Works, which also housed Eagle Plate Co, Sowden, and Viner & Hall.  Most of these firms were involved in the finishing stages of cutlery manufacture (such as buffing and packing) or were factors.  

The owner of Groves’ is unknown.  An advertisement in The Ironmonger Diary (1950) depicted – alongside the ‘USE’ mark – a cutlery canteen, forks and spoons, stainless table knives, a serrated kitchen (or butcher’s) knife, and also mentioned scissors and goods in electro-plate.   Few, if any, of these products would have been made by Groves’.  By the 1960s, Richard Groves & Sons Ltd was a virtual shell (albeit with a reputable mark) owned by Charles Havenhand.  Herbert Housley bought the ‘company’ from Havenhand for £250.  Housley (2011)³ noted that Groves’ name and mark still had prestige, particularly in export markets.

^1. Leader, Robert E, Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (Sheffield, 2nd edn 1876)

^2. Tweedale, G, Directory of Sheffield Tool Manufacturers, 1740-2018 (2020)

^3. Housley, Herbert, Grindstones Gather Moss (Sheffield, 2011)