According to an advertisement in International Cutler (1953), Lee & Crookes had been established for over seventy years.  It can be traced to Charles Lee (1846-1913), who was an ivory cutter.  His son was Charles Albert Lee, who was born in 1878.  In 1919, ‘Charles Lee’ (under Albert) was listed as an ivory cutter at 144 Eyre Street.   At 150 Eyre Street was a bone haft and scale cutter operated by George Crookes.  After his death in 1924, his son, George William Crookes (born in 1894), continued the enterprise.  

In 1931, Albert Lee and George William Crookes registered Lee & Crookes Ltd at City Ivory Works, Eyre Lane.  Capital was £15,000.  In 1932, they presented a petition to wind up Thomas Turner & Co (Sheffield) Ltd, which suggests that the latter was a key customer.  Factory extensions were proposed in 1936 and Lee & Crookes’ address became Cobden Works, Eyre Street.  As ivory became scarce and expensive, the firm switched to xylonite (celluloid) for knife handles.  (Charles Lee had been involved with celluloid before the First World War.)  

In 1945, Plastic Cutters Ltd was formed (capital £10,000) to acquire BX Plastics and Lee & Crookes Ltd, Sheffield and London.  At the start of the 1950s, A. Lee and G. W. Crookes were listed as the partners in directories.   Another merger in 1989, saw Lee & Crookes combine with J. E. Snow Plastics – both handle makers – with Lee & Crookes specialising in beech, rosewood, and sycamore.  The firm’s last address in the 1990s was Thirwell Road, Heeley, but it was then dissolved.