Advertisment from 1887. Image courtesy of Geoff Tweedale
The partners were George Edgar Maleham (1850-1922) and Thomas Shillito(e) Yeomans (1852-1940). In 1871, they were living in a house in Daniel Hill, Upperthorpe, with Thomas’s father, John. Thomas was the grandson of John Yeomans, a cutlery merchant. George and Thomas were apprentice merchants. By 1876, they had started Maleham & Yeomans and advertised steel, tools and ‘Superior Table Cutlery’. The address of the company – which clearly involved factoring – was Burgess Works in Burgess Street. By 1879, the address was Bowdon Street/Milton Street. George and Thomas lived in 45 Victoria Road, Broomhall Park. In 1881, the firm employed 37 workers. It sold table cutlery, but its advertisements (as in the 1887 directory) emphasized palette knives and other assorted knives for painters. It also sold spring knives, scissors, and razors. Its product line was similar to William Bradshaw & Son, whose trade mark (a Maltese Cross and the horizontal letters V and M) was adopted in 1884 by Maleham & Yeomans. Another trade mark used was ‘RIV’ (granted in 1787). A silver mark was registered in Sheffield in 1901. An old Maleham & Yeomans’ sales catalogue featured smokers’ knives, sport’s knives, and various types of pruning and pen knives.
The partnership was dissolved in 1912. George E. Maleham, Grove Road, Millhouses, died on 6 February 1922, aged 71. He was buried in Ecclesall churchyard, leaving £646. Yeomans continued to manage the firm. Thomas S. Yeomans, ‘manager’, Mylnhurst Road, died on 26 December 1940, aged 88. He was buried in unconsecrated ground in the General Cemetery. He left £144,498. The firm was listed in 49 Bowdon Street until about the mid-1960s, when its address changed to Pond Hill after a takeover by Joseph Rodgers. It was last listed at that address in 1970.
Further family history research and background is also available on the Sheffield History Forum at https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/17806-maleham-yeomans/