Kenilworth Works, Denby St. © Geoffrey Tweedale, 2013
William Robert Humphreys was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in about 1847. He was apprenticed as an ironmonger before becoming a cutlery traveller. He apparently started business in Sheffield in 1872. Until 1876, he partnered John Jackson Badger (of cutlery maker, William Badger & Co). Badger later sued Humphreys for bad debts. By 1879, Humphreys had launched a cutlery business at Eyre Street Works, 76 Eyre Street. This was a tenement factory, which Humphreys shared with other manufacturers. He employing about thirty men and concentrated on table knives and razors. For a decade, his traveller was Charles Edward Trickett (later a file manufacturer), who died in 1899 after crashing his bicycle in Sharrow Vale Road (Sheffield Independent, 19 June 1899). In 1894, Humphreys was fined 40s (£2) in a police court for imitating the marks of George Butler & Co. Humphreys began to market silver and electro-plate goods and registered his own silver marks from Eyre Street in 1895 and 1899.
In 1904, Humphreys’ became a limited company, with a nominal capital of £30,000. The shares were allocated to William R. Humphreys (Corbar Mount, Buxton), his wife, and relatives belonging to the Graham family. The business was relocated to Advance Works of John Wragg, Denby Street, which was renamed Haddon Works. The factory was described as a three-storey ‘irregular block’ of buildings, which employed about 300 hands in 1912 (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5 March 1912, 23 January 1915). However, the number of 'hands' cannot be verified. The firm also had a London office at Ely Place (which was later at Hatton Garden). Trade catalogues show that the firm manufactured (or marketed) a wide range of knives, including most types of table knives and pocket knives. Another silver mark was registered in 1905. The firm’s trade marks were ‘HADDON’ and a lamp with the word ‘RADIANT’.
William Robert Humphreys died at Derby House, Broad Walk, Buxton, on 11 September 1911, aged 64. He had moved to Buxton for health reasons, though his death was ‘somewhat sudden’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13 September 1911). He was buried in the General Cemetery. He left a widow, Rosa (who was Viennese and almost half his age), but no children. His estate was valued at £11,476.
Thomas Richard Humphreys Graham (1871-1932) and Charles Hinchliffe (1871-1932) took over the business. The former was Humphrey’s nephew. Charles Hinchliffe – the firm’s table knife manager – was the son of William Henry Hinchliffe, a publican in Button Lane. Hinchliffe claimed 47 years’ experience in the cutlery trade. In a letter to The Sheffield Daily Telegraph (26 January 1931), he reviewed progress in the table knife trade. He highlighted how machine-made (goffed) blades had superseded the work of the hand forger. And also how celluloid provided a safe and effective substitute for natural handle materials. On the other hand, he regarded the best table knife as one ‘hand forged from double shear steel, hand ground and cutled by a good cutler’. He found stainless steel a mixed blessing: labour-saving from the customer’s viewpoint, but stainless knives did not lend themselves to quick renewals. Nevertheless, he wrote that Humphreys had over 10,000 patterns in table cutlery.
Graham and Hinchliffe were unsuccessful. They wound up the firm in May 1931 and sold the assets, goodwill, trade marks, stock-in-trade, and tools. Haddon Works and the adjacent Kenilworth Works (apparently acquired in the interwar years) were also offered for sale. In 1931, Graham started his own business manufacturing table cutlery (see T. R. H. Graham & Co). So, too, did Hinchliffe, who launched Charles Hinchliffe & Son in Napier Street. However, both Graham and Hinchliffe died in the following year. The latter on 26 March 1932, aged 61. He was buried in City Road Cemetery, leaving £845.
Towards the end of 1931, W. R. Humphreys & Co became a newly-formed limited company at Haddon Works, with £5,000 capital. The plan was to continue as cutlery and steel manufacturers, but also operate as engineers and manufacturers of bicycles and motor cars. The directors were Charles Boot JP, of Thornbridge Hall, Bakewell; George Edward Charles Clarke, Fir Hills Road, Sheffield; J. F. R. Mills, Brentwood Avenue, Bamford; F. Mills, Bates Street, Sheffield; and C. A. R. Cooper, whose address was not stated (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 15 December 1931). Boot, who was a wealthy Sheffield builder, became chairman; George Clarke was the managing director. Clarke died of a heart attack three years later, aged 54, when he was attending the consecration of a new lodge at Masonic Hall. The funeral was at Burngreave Cemetery (Daily Independent, 5 October 1935).
In 1939, Kenilworth Works was offered for sale, but Humphreys’ continued at Haddon Works. After the War, the chairman was Frank W. Blaydes, who died on 12 March 1954, aged 92, at his home in Harrogate. He left £10,390. His shares in the company were left equally to his daughter, Winifred, and son, Reginald. Humphreys occupied Haddon Works until about 1961, when its address changed to Portland Works, Randall Street (once home to cutlery manufacturer R. F. Mosley). By the mid-1960s, Humphreys had relocated to Sidney Street at the same address as Leppington (Cutlers) Ltd, which had apparently acquired the firm. After 1970, Humphreys was no longer listed as a trading entity and was struck off the register in 1985.