William Turner (1844-1906) and Robert John Brown worked at Sheffield Smelting Co in Royds Mill Street. William was a clerk, who had been born at South Collingham, Nottinghamshire, and was the son of a butcher. He began at Sheffield Smelting in 1862. One manager felt that he was lazy and ‘too much disposed to warm his back at the furnaces’ (Wilson, 19601). However, Turner proved highly capable and eventually became the head-office manager. Brown was the warehouse manager. In 1887, Turner and Brown launched William Turner & Co in Eyre Street in direct competition with their previous employers. The firm was described as a refiner of gold and silver and bullion dealer. The Sheffield Independent, 25 June 1906, noted that the ‘works are not of an extensive character, but the business is an important one’. Turner and Brown prospered. In 1903, the company registered a silver mark. William Turner, who was a Liberal Nonconformist (worshipping at Zion Chapel, Attercliffe), became a city councillor in 1899. He was a director of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and Lord Mayor elect in 1906 – the year he died on 23 June. He was buried at City Road Cemetery, leaving £29,813 net.
Turner’s sons – William Glasier (1870-1947) Harold (1875-1962) – took over the business. In the early 1930s, the precious metal side of the business was sold to Johnson Matthey & Co Ltd. The Turners had decided to concentrate exclusively on the production all types of cutlery blanks (including spoons and forks) for the Sheffield trade from its Eyre Street and Furnival Street factories. In 1933, Turners (Eyre Street) Ltd was registered with £15,000 capital. It is said to have designed two classic cutlery patterns: ‘Jesmond’ and ‘Harley’. William G. Turner died on 21 May 1947, leaving £14,577. The family connection was continued by William Longden, the maternal grandson of William G. Turner. Harold Turner, the company chairman, died in a nursing home in Broomhall Place on 18 June 1962, aged 87. He left £7,276. In that year, Turners began relocating to the former premises of V. B. Vickers in Sylvester Street and also occupied the workshops of engineers W. Forrest & Co on the opposite side of the street.
By 1968, the move and modernisation had been completed and the factory was named Industry Works (Sheffield Spectator, November 1968). Cecil Turner was the last family chairman (he was also a director of Sheffield Wednesday FC). In 1965, Raymond Spittlehouse (1935-1972) had become joint-managing director. His wife, Pat, had family connections with the Turner’s and after her husband’s death continued to run the firm. In the 1970s, though, the firm was in difficulties. In 1988, it was acquired by Nickel Blanks Co Ltd and Industry Works was closed. A retailing brand later traded as ‘William Turner Master Cutlers Sheffield’.
1. Wilson, Ronald E, Two Hundred Precious Metal Years (London, 1960)