Henry Heathcote (c.1825-1906) was a spring knife cutler, who in 1847 married Miss Mary Ward at Townhead Street Baptist Chapel.   The couple lived at Silver Street.  Their son, Samuel (1851-1920), began work as an eight-year-old in a crinoline steel rolling mill, before following his father’s trade (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 20 August 1920).  In 1874, he married Esther Pratt (1853-1931) and the couple settled at Sharrow Vale.  Their sons included Harry Herbert (1876-1887), Samuel (1880-1950), and Alexander (1891-1983).

Samuel Heathcote Sen. was first listed as a spring knife maker in a Sheffield directory in 1891 at Pool Works, Burgess Street.  Two years later, he had moved to Continental Works, Headford Street.  His son, Samuel Jun, joined him when he came of age.  In 1901, Samuel Heathcote & Son, ‘manufacturer of all kinds of spring cutlery’, was located at Arundel Works, Eyre Lane and Howard Lane.  By 1916, the business had moved to Melbourne Works, Charles Lane.  Samuel Sen. died at 47 Cowlishaw Road, Sharrow Vale, on 26 August 1920, aged 69.  According to an obituary, he was ‘intimately connected with the cutlery trade, throughout his life’ (Sheffield Independent, 20 August 1920).   He was one of the officials at Townhead Street Baptist Church and a temperance advocate.  He was buried at Ecclesall, leaving £2,196.  His firm continued to trade.  The Sheffield Daily Independent Trade Review, 31 December 1927, featured a small advertisement for Samuel Heathcote & Son, Charles Lane, a manufacturer of penknives, which had been ‘established half a century’.  It became defunct in about 1931 – the year, when Samuel Sen.’s widow, Esther, died.