Identifying this cutler – who advertised once in the directory (1845) – is difficult, not least because the name often appeared as ‘Walsh’.  Apparently, James Walker Walch was the son of Thomas Walch, a cutler in Little Pond Street, and his wife Hannah.  James married Hannah Smedley in 1842, before starting a career as a cutler.  It proved short-lived; by 1851 he was a warehouseman.   In 1859, he became the publican at the White Horse in Solly Street.  But he was insolvent by 1861 and also owed funds to a Friendly Society.   After a spell as a spring knife manager – apparently at Marsh Bros (Pollard, 1959¹) – his last occupation in the 1881 Census was as an iron works labourer, with Martha working as a washerwoman.  He apparently died in 1889.

^1. Pollard, S, A History of Labour in Sheffield (Liverpool, 1959)