This firm was active by 1908 as a stamper of table knife blades at St Mary’s Road.  The partners were Clement Foreman Carr (1885-1948) and Alwyn Howard Wild (1886-1968).  The former’s background is described in the profile of Foreman Cutlery Company.  Alywn H. Wild’s early life is presented in the history of Sheffield Steel Products Ltd.  In 1908, Carr, Wild & Co was issued with a restraining order for creating too much noise and vibration at St Mary’s Road.  In the following year, the firm was registered as a private limited company (capital £3,000) at New Enterprise Works, Egerton Street.  This was part of a tenement factory, Exchange Works, which was at Egerton Street between Headford Street and Evans Street.  

Advertisements in the press indicate that besides table knife blades, the firm also produced scissors blanks.  Many of the jobs, such as scissors dressing, were conducted by female staff.  Working conditions were often poor and – typically for that era – often potentially hazardous.  In 1910, the company was fined 27s [£1.35] in each case for employing two boys without a medical certificate.  Another fine (£2) was incurred for failing to fence a fly wheel (Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 2 July 1914).   In the following year, a teenage boy died after he had sat in an idle moment in belting hanging from an overhead shaft.  When it suddenly became activated, he was  pulled into air and dashed onto some billets, fracturing his skull.   This was an ‘accidental death’, according the coroner (Sheffield Independent, 12 June 1915).   It was later decided that no compensation should be paid, eiher, as the lad had supposedly taken on the risk by sitting in the belting (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13 August 1915).

Carr, Wild & Co borrowed heavily – issuing £6,500 debentures by 1913 – and by the outbreak of War had only performed moderately.  In 1914, the company advertised cutlers’ shops and warehouse space ‘to let’ at Egerton Street.  Carr also had links with Sheffield Scissors, Razor & Tool Co Ltd.  In 1917, he and Henry Sayers had registered a new design for adjustable spanners.   After the War, C. F. Carr left to establish Foreman Cutlery Co.  Alwyn H. Wild retained his interest in Carr, Wild & Co, but liquidated it in 1921 and made it one of the building blocks of Sheffield Steel Products Ltd.   In the prospectus of that company, Wild described Carr, Wild & Co as the largest drop stamping plant in the UK for scissors, pliers, and similar tools.  Wild also absorbed Sheffield Scissors, Razor & Tool Co Ltd into his conglomerate.