Henry Godfrey Lamb Long (c.1789-1853) was born at Newark, Nottinghamshire.  It is not known when he came to Sheffield or started in business (though advertisements later claimed a founding date of 1768).  But Henry Long first appeared in a Sheffield directory in 1828 in Arundel Street.   A brief partnership with John Brown (unidentified) was dissolved in 1832.  He then partnered George Wragg, who had served an apprenticeship with William Harwood and Lewis Thomas. In 1833, Wragg – a ‘maker of knives’ – was granted a crossed-daggers mark. WRAGG, LONG & CO was listed at 105 Eyre Street as a merchant, steel converter, and manufacturer of table, butcher, shoe knives, and steels. 

George Wragg, died on 15 May 1841, aged 50. B y 1845, LONG, GREGORY & CO had been formed.  The new partner was James Gregory (1817-1874), who in 1839 had married Long’s eldest daughter, Anne Letitia (1820-1849).  In about 1845, Long and Gregory occupied Hallamshire Works, Rockingham Street.  The leasehold of this building had been offered for sale in the previous year by file makers Earl & Co.  It consisted of a counting house, warehouse, and packing room, fronting to Rockingham Street; a range of workshops three-storeys high, and several smithies, besides a crucible steel furnace (Sheffield Independent, 19 October 1844).  This partnership ended in 1847, when Gregory left to establish himself as a steel and file manufacturer.  Long was next joined by his son – Charles Gervis Long (1828-1877) – and George Hawksley.  LONG, SON, & HAWKSLEY was dissolved in 1849.  Charles became a merchant in Sheffield, London, and Paris, but became insolvent (London Gazette, 6 January 1854).  Charles’s subsequent London partnership – Long, Heyn & Co – was dissolved in 1862.  He died in New Zealand.

By 1852, the Sheffield business had been reorganised again as LONG, HAWKSLEY & MARPLES, when the remaining partners were joined by Benjamin Marples.  Long evidently prospered as a merchant and lived in Glossop Road.  He died on 9 December 1853, aged 64, from ‘lung disease’ and was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the General Cemetery.  His other son, William, died four months later, aged 19.  The business continued after Long’s death and, ironically, was listed for the first time in directories as H. G. LONG & CO at Rockingham Street.  Little is known about the firm’s trade and it rarely advertised.  It is likely that most of its business was within the British Isles. Its ‘double-refined’ shear steel table cutlery was sold by ironmongers in Ireland, where Long’s was described as ‘Cutlers to the Queen’ (Southern Reporter & Cork Commercial Courier, 11 July 1863).

In 1866, Marples died and George Hawksley renamed the enterprise as LONG, HAWKSLEY & CO, Hallamshire Works.  By 1868, the firm had a London office at Dowgate Hill, Cannon Street.  George Hawksley died at Norton Lees on 5 September 1869, aged 44, leaving under £18,000.  His unconsecrated burial was in the General Cemetery.  Henry Biggin (1833-1905) next operated the firm.  He was the son of Thomas Biggin, a Little Norton farmer, and his wife, Sarah.  Henry was apprenticed to Long’s as a merchant’s clerk and then became a partner. After Hawksley’s death, Biggin became owner of the business and built up a profitable concern.  It was still known as Long, Hawksley & Co and used the crossed daggers mark (which in 1888 had been assigned to Henry Biggin and his associate, Francis Henry Cockayne, by the only surviving executor of George Wragg).  Biggin and Cockayne re-registered it that year.

In 1890, Henry’s brother, Alexander Biggin (1846-1900) became partner.  He had been a cutlery traveller for the firm and eventually superintended the London branch.  Like other Sheffield cutlery firms, Long’s attempted to profit from the expanding market for silver and electro-plate (a silver mark was registered in 1894 and another in 1906).  Henry was a Conservative politically and avoided public affairs and publicity. Alec Biggin was more prominent. In 1871, he had unsuccessfully tried to divorce his wife, Mary, because of her alleged adultery.  In 1896, he was the defendant in a well-publicised trial involving over-charging and payments of secret commissions to a buyer. The jury’s verdict was that Biggin had made a corrupt bargain and he was instructed to reach a settlement with the plaintiffs  (Sheffield Independent, 8 July 1896).  Henry Biggin had formally retired from the firm in 1889, but did not entirely withdraw from the business until 1898 (Cockayne had left in 1892).

Ownership passed to Alexander Biggin and Maurice Craven (1868-1915).  The latter was the son of Alfred Craven, the owner of a well known Sheffield carriage and wagon builder. However, Alexander Biggin’s career was ended by his ‘somewhat sudden’ death on 20 February 1900 (Yorkshire Telegraph & Star, 23 February 1900).  He left £3,378 to his widow Marian Beatrice Biggin.  Henry Biggin died, aged 73, on 21 April 1905 at his home Hallamshire House, Montgomery Road (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 22 April 1905).  He was a wealthy man, leaving £62,411 (net personalty £57,190). His gravestone can be seen at Norton cemetery.

In 1901, H. G. LONG & CO LTD had been registered at Hallamshire Works, Rockingham Street, with £15,000 capital (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 24 April 1901).  The directors included Maurice Craven: Joseph Allen (1860-1917), of cutlers Joseph Allen & Sons, and his son, James Edward Allen (1867-1923?); Marian B. Biggin; and Albert Milns. It was described as a merchant and manufacturer selling table, dessert, butchers’, farriers’, and pocket knives – besides razors, plated goods, and edge tools.  Long’s had offices in London and Adelaide. It immediately began to advertise the Long razor brand – ‘THE BOBS’ – with the razors etched ‘Little and Good’. Such razors, it was promised, would ‘beat the Germans’ (Ironmonger Diary, 1905). Probably the razors were factored (‘bought in’), perhaps from Joseph Allen. The workforce was modest: about sixty hands, who were managed by Thomas Gillott Rowland  (1858-1950).

Long’s seems to have struggled and Joseph Allen took sole control. In 1911, H. G. Long was liquidated and restructured by Allen with £10,000 capital. It occupied a portion of Hallamshire Works until the end of 1912, but in the following year it relocated to New Hallamshire Works, Boston Street. This was a two-storey building, with several separate workshops. Long’s had acquired additional trade marks: John Baker’s ‘MERIT’ and Horrabin’s ‘PHOENIX’.  Long’s continued to produce table cutlery and pocket-knives. During the First World War, it undertook government orders for Navy spike knives and tools. Joseph Allen died in 1917, but Long’s remained under the Allen family. Thomas G. Rowland was still works manager, with his brothers Joseph and Willie also employed at Boston Street. In 1922, an explosion and fire caused by the xylonite used for knife handles seriously burned the face and hands of Joseph Rowland (Sheffield Daily Independent, 21 June 1922). At this time, the firm advertised in the trade press its ‘Cross Dagger’ cutlery, which included table knives (now in stainless steel), forks and spoons, cased canteens, and pocket knives.

By 1924, Long’s had moved again – this time to Cross Dagger Works, Bridge Street. In 1926, the business was offered for sale as a ‘going-concern’, with ‘four valuable trademarks’.  It was wound up in 1927. The last of the firm’s table-blade glazing and grinding machines were sold (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 19 March 1927).  H. G. Long’s next address was Joseph Allen’s premises at Ecclesall Works, 245 Rockingham Street. In 1933, Allen’s was liquidated. But it was revived by Joseph’s sons, Edgar Allen (1890-1975) and Sydney Allen (1893-1964).  In the best Sheffield tradition, they continued to list H. G. Long (and Jonathan Crookes) in directories at Ecclesall Works (even though these firms were now no more than a name and a collection of trade marks). Sydney Allen, of Wostenholm Road, died at The Royal Hallamshire Hospital on 24 June 1963, leaving £18,022. In the previous year, the crossed-daggers mark had been sold to Denis Slater (of H. M. Slater in Arundel Street)