Frederick Fenney was one of the best known razor makers in the town.   He was the son of a silver plater, Josiah Fenney (or Finney), and his wife, Elizabeth.  Apprenticed in 1813 to razor maker Charles Milner, by 1822 Fenney was a razor manufacturer and etcher in High Street.   A move to Townhead Street followed.  In 1833, Fenney was granted his striking ‘TALLY-HO’ running fox mark.  According to Leader (1905-6), Fenney was ‘chiefly remembered for the vigour with which … he advertised Tally-Ho razors’.  In the late 1830s and early 1840s, he operated from Smith Street, before moving to Division Street in 1849.  

Fenney prospered.  He had a house on Glossop Road.  In New York, his razors were marketed by William and Robert S. Stenton.   In 1848, he became Master Cutler.  In an open letter to his fellow townsmen, he argued that the Company of Cutlers still had a role, if it was reinvigorated and modernised.  He likened the possessor of a valuable mark to a ‘British man of war, ready and willing to pour in a broadside on the first marauder that ventures to attack him’ (Sheffield Independent, 29 April 1849).  

According to The Art-Journal (October 1850), Fenney’s best productions were ornamented with acid-etched landscapes: ‘razors designed for the Russian market, having pictures of sledging scenes in winter, hunting the bear, etc.;  those for other countries being typical also of national tastes’.  In 1851, his display at the Great Exhibition included a ‘mother-of-pearl show razor, the blade embossed with scroll ornaments and Sheffield arms; carved and set in silver: the work on the blade was cut by the grindstone’.  The exhibit (which was pictured in The Art Journal’s Illustrated Catalogue, 1851) won a Prize Medal.   

Fenney died on 25 March 1852 at his residence Springfield Place, Glossop Road, aged 52, ‘deeply lamented by his family and a numerous circle of friends’ (Sheffield Independent, 27 March 1852).   He was interred in the General Cemetery.  The business and ‘TALLY-HO’ mark – ‘well known for its celebrity in the American and European markets’ – was offered for sale (Sheffield Independent, 3 April 1852).   The buyer was London-born Charles Thomas Bingham (1820-1886), a merchant and ‘gentleman’ in Ranmoor.  He operated as a razor manufacturer from Devonshire Street and Eldon Street during the 1850s (though apparently on a lesser scale than his predecessor).  The Sheffield Independent, 21 March 1863, announced that Bingham was selling Tally-Ho Works – which had an annual rent of £12 9s 9d (£12.50) – and the corporate mark.  The running fox fled across the street to George Wostenholm.