George Warriss (1827-1906) was born in the Park district, Sheffield.  He was probably the son of John (a cutler, when his son was baptised) and his wife, Sarah.  In 1841, George was living with John (now a labourer) and Sarah in Broad Street, Park.  He became a dessert knife fluter and by the mid-1850s had started a business in Norfolk Lane.  In 1865 – when he moved to School of Art Works, 53 Arundel Street – Warriss advertised in the local directory as a manufacturer of silver and plated desserts, fish carvers, and pickle forks.

By 1871, when George Warriss lived in Crescent Road, Sharrow, he employed four men and three boys.  A decade later, the firm employed two men.  In 1885, Warriss registered a silver mark at School of Art Works, Howard Street.  He married twice: to Christina (d.1872) and then to Elizabeth (d.1894).  His sons, John Henry Warriss (1848-1915) and George Connerath Warris (1861-1942), joined the business.  By 1895, the company was based in Eyre Street, with John Henry listed as partner, living in Abbeydale Road.  It was styled George Warriss & Sons by 1906.

George Warriss had retained his links with the Park district.  He was a prominent member of the Methodist New Connexion and since the 1840s had been a superintendent and regular teacher at Talbot Street Sunday School.  It was said that if his Sunday perambulations to the school were reckoned in miles over his lifetime, they would have ‘covered the circuit of the globe, if not a good deal more’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1895).  After 1873, Warriss was a town councillor of Park ward.  He was a Liberal, though not an ‘illiberal Liberal’:

Practically he is an abstainer, though he has signed no pledge and does not rank himself among teetotallers, reserving his right to exercise his own conscience in the matter.  In the Park, the name of his friends is Legion … (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 16 October 1884).

George Warriss died at his residence 40 Crescent Road on 10 May 1906, aged 79.  He was described as ‘one of the oldest and best known of the Sheffield manufacturers of silver and plated goods’ (Engineer, 18 May 1906).  Warriss was buried in the General Cemetery and left £13,980.  His son, John Henry, of Abbeydale Road, died on 6 January 1915.  He left £6,877.  His tomb is in Norton cemetery.  His brother may have taken over George Warriss & Sons, which in the interwar period was listed in Eyre Street.  But George C. Warriss is elusive in the Census and was not listed as a partner in the directory in 1919 or 1922.  He lived at 61 Grove Road, Millhouses, and died on 8 January 1942, aged 80.  He left effects of £6,916.

In 1946, the firm was incorporated as Warriss & Co (Sheffield) Ltd at Eyre Street.  It remained there until about 1973, when it relocated to Arundel Street.  The final owners of the business (which moved again to Advance Works, Mary Street) were Charley and Jeffrey Caterer, a father and son team.  Herbert Housley recalled (personal communication to author): ‘Charley, who was very deaf, had been a buffer all his life … Jeff ran the company, which produced a lot of EPNS and occasionally sterling silver cutlery, and one of their customers was Harrods.  I have always had the greatest respect for them both, they were extremely hard working men.  Like most traditional Sheffield cutlers, they relied on the old “Parish Patterns” and for them trade became very difficult’. In 2008, Warriss & Co was wound up and the name acquired by Pinder Bros.