Henry Stratford (1826-1905) was born in Sheffield, the son of silversmith William Stratford and his wife, Mary.  He was apprenticed to silver platers Howard & Hawksworth, before working for a Birmingham house. In 1854, Henry joined forces with his brother, William Jun. (1813-1877).  In 1855, W. & H. Stratford registered a silver mark from Surrey Street. By 1860, the brothers made silver and electro-plate wares (including trophies, cups, and bowls) in New Church Street. The factory employed fourteen men and four boys in 1861; and 21 men, seven boys, and eight women in 1871.

William Stratford Jun., Hanover Street, died on 20 December 1877, aged 64.  He was buried in Ecclesall, leaving under £3,000. Henry took over the business in 1879, after he bought out the trustees Herbert Harry Stratford (1853-1886) – who was his nephew – and Thomas Rutland Marsden. In 1879, he registered his silver mark ‘HS’ from New Church Street. By 1881, when the business had moved to Harwood Street, the workforce was fifty.  Henry married Emma Corbidge (1828-1905) and they had four sons:  Sidney Harry (1854-1908), Charles Lionel (1858-1915), John Edwin (1860-1918), and William Overbury (1864-1942).  Henry increasingly left the running of the business to them. By 1890s, the firm was said to have employed about eighty workers (Men of the Period, 1896). In 1900, Stratford’s became a limited company (capital £20,000), with Henry as the governing shareholder and other family members holding the remaining shares. The firm registered silver marks in 1900 and 1905.  

Henry Stratford was a Conservative, an executive of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and a member of Sheffield Wednesday Cricket and Football Clubs.  He was apparently still working in the 1890s and looking forward to his golden wedding in 1897. He died on 27 February 1905, aged 79. He had been ill with heart trouble, but had insisted on taking his carriage out to Abbey Lane, where (according to The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28 February 1905) he told his companions that he felt well and there had been no death in his family for 54 years. He ended that record when he collapsed and died at the Waggon & Horses pub, near his home in Hastings Road, Millhouses. He was buried in Ecclesall, leaving £11,250. His wife, Emma, died six months later.

Henry’s son, Sidney Harry Stratford, who lived in Brooke Road, Meersbrook, became head of the firm, which then employed about forty workmen. But Sidney died on a business trip on 23 May 1908, aged 53. The funeral was at Norton Cemetery. He left £1,384. By 1914, about sixty workers were employed. The company continued operating into the 1920s, under the last of Henry’s sons, William Overbury Stratford, whose residence was in Bannerdale Road.  Henry Stratford Ltd ceased trading in about 1930.  W.O. Stratford died at Exmouth, Devon, on 24 May 1942.  He left £5,482.