William Needham (1853-1915), a maker of silver fruit-knives, was born in Sheffield, the son of Joseph Needham, a maker of joiner’s tools.  As a teenager, he trained as a ‘silver cutler’ and by 1881 was working in Jessop Street.  A trade card dated his firm from 1884; and he registered a silver mark from Jessop Street in 1891.  Later his works address was Jepson’s Wheel, Jessop Street; and he lived at Harefield Road. 

By 1911, his business was in Eyre Street.  Needham’s knives were well-made, sometimes high-quality, but his output was increasingly directed towards the mass market at a time when the demand for silver-fruit knives was fading.  William Needham died, aged 62, at 7 Harefield Road on 21 July 1915 and was buried in Ecclesall churchyard.  He left £3,634. 

The business continued in Eyre Street under his sons, William Henry Needham (1877-1963) and Ralph Clarke Needham (1883-1967).  In 1929, they registered the Pocket Knife Material Co Ltd, with £500 capital.  At the end of the 1930s, Needham’s had moved to Portland Works (the factory of R. F. Mosley) in Hill Street.  Needham still advertised silver fruit-knives, but sold other cutlery, such as table knives, electro-plate, and sportsman’s knives.  Its advertisement in The Ironmonger Diary (1952) depicted the same pen knife as the one in Kirkham & Co’s advertisement – a firm also directed by a Needham.  W. H. Needham died on 5 May 1963, leaving £312.  The firm was listed as a table cutlery manufacturer and jeweller at Portland Works in the early 1970s, possibly under W. H. Needham’s son, William Edwin (1903-1971) or R. C. Needham’s son, Ralph Clarke (1905-1991).  Pages from a Needham catalogue are reproduced in Moore (2008)¹.

Nigel Needham is working on a One Name Study of the Needham name and his website includes more information about the Needhams as cutlers. See https://needham.one-name.net/UK%20Records/Trades/Trades_Cutlers.htm for more details.

^1. Moore, Simon, Pocket Fruit Knives: A Synopsis of Their History from the United Kingdom, France, Northern Europe and USA (Slough, 2008)