‘BEXFIELD’ was a name associated with George Wostenholm & Son.  William Cubitt Bexfield (1856-1919) was born at Norwich. In 1888, he married at Great Yarmouth Mary Long née Bunn.  In the 1890s, the couple moved to the USA, where William became a ‘merchant-broker’.  Their son, Harold Cubitt Bexfield (1895-1962), was born at Buffalo, New York.  At that time, William was a tea, coffee, and sugar broker at Buffalo.  In the early 1900s, William returned to England and became a hardware agent in London.  Harold assisted him in the office. William formed Bexfield & Co with Henrick Hoyer, but this was dissolved at the end of 1911.  William died on 5 July 1919, leaving £1,355 to his widow, Mary.  The funeral was at Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium.

Harold C. Bexfield worked in London as a commercial traveller in the early 1920s.  He opened an office at Paternoster Row, where he sold a range of Sheffield cutlery and tools.  By 1939, he was a director of Wostenholm’s and manager of its London office at Holborn.  He wrote the company history: The House of Wostenholm 1745-1945 (1945).  He later became deputy chairman.

In 1955, H. Cubitt Bexfield was registered as a private limited company, with an office at Holborn, London.  However, Harold Bexfield died at Albury, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, on 30 September 1962, aged 67. He left £29,346.  His firm continued to trade, though it is not known if any Bexfields – such as his widow, Muriel Ives née Royston – were involved.  (She left £276,288 net, after her death in 1992.)

In the early 1980s, H. Cubitt Bexfield Ltd had a Sheffield address at Arundel Street, but it soon moved to Mundial House, Kiveton Park.  It advertised as ‘International Scissors and Hardware Specialists’, with J. Fowler as sales director.  The Hawley Collection’s Barlow-style knife, with its glazed blade, may have been made during this period.  In 2003, the firm became insolvent and was wound up by J. H. Fowler.