A well-known spade and shovel manufacturer, this firm was established in 1855 by Masbrough-born Charles Thomas Skelton (1833-1913).  Skelton’s began as a backstreet operation in Norwich Street, Park, but at the start of the 1870s moved to Sheafbank Works in Heeley.   The firm became ‘Ltd’ in 1902, with a capital of £50,000, but until the Second World War was owned and managed first by Charles and then by his sons, William Simmonds and Sam Edgar (Skelton, 1955).  Charles became a Liberal town councillor (1880), Alderman and Mayor (1894), and was knighted (1897).  A New Connexion Methodist, non-smoker, and temperance worker, he was dubbed a ‘Modern Puritan’.  The firm sold (but probably did not make), horticultural knives (such as pruners), bread knives, and double-shear steel ‘Green River’ and bushman’s knives for the Colonies.  Sir Charles died at Heysham, Lancashire, on 7 October 1913, aged 80.  He left £34,600 and was buried in Norton cemetery.  A serious fire gutted the multi-storey factory in 1921, though the premises were rebuilt and still stand (though by the 1960s Skelton’s had been absorbed by other companies).  The trade mark was a goat’s head.   For a more detailed account of the company, see G. Tweedale, Directory of Sheffield Tool Manufacturers, 1742-2018 (2020)