Benjamin James Eyre, the son of Ellis Eyre a grocer in Fargate, was born in about 1812 in Brough, Derbyshire.  In 1834, he began working at Sheaf Works of William Greaves, where he was apparently a traveller, first in the home market and then in America.  He eventually became a partner in Wm. Greaves.  When that business was dissolved in 1850, Eyre, Ward & Co was formed.  Eyre invited Frederick Ward to join him, alongside two travellers, James Hale (1807-1856) and William Brownell.  Turton’s, the steel and tool firm, took control of Sheaf Works, but Eyre and his partners occupied its cutlery workshops.  T.A. Ward noted in a letter: ‘If industry will insure success, they need not fear as [the partners] are the reverse of idle. I think they are cautious and judicious too; so they have as good chance as most.  I do not believe they are unreasonably ambitious, but will be content to live comfortably’ (Bell, 1910).

At the Great Exhibition of 1851, the firm won a Prize Medal for its table cutlery (exported to the US, Canada, South America, and Australia) and its razors, pocket-knives, dagger and Bowie knives (‘made from the best cast steel, and every variety in quality’), scissors, scythes, and sickles. Apparently, between 1850 and 1855 Eyre Ward & Co built a factory on Cadman Street (later named Sipelia Works by B. & J. Sippel) a hundred yards or so on the opposite bank of the canal to Sheaf Works.  In 1852, Eyre partnered Asline Ward in setting up a New York agency, which operated until 1857, when Eyre established his own New York office.  Eyre visited the USA regularly, but Brownell was the American representative.  An industrial reporter (Burn, 1858) interviewed Eyre, who stated that his firm produced up to 4,000 gross of articles each week, mostly table knives, and used the shank bones of 3,000 oxen weekly.  The reporter noted the vast quantities of brown paper kept in stock.  This paper was seasoned for several years, so that no moisture from the packing material could corrode the blades.

James Hale was usually based in Philadelphia, but stayed at his brother’s residence at Glossop Road, when visiting Sheffield.  He collapsed and died there on 25 January 1856, aged 48.  An inquest recorded a  verdict of death due to heart and lung disease (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 29 |January 1856).  He was buried at Ecclesall.  In 1857, the Eyre, Ward partnership was dissolved.  Benjamin Eyre began trading alone at Sheaf Works as B. J. Eyre & Co.  In 1861, the Census recorded that he employed 108 workers.  His employees showed their gratitude for his efforts by organising a 100-guinea presentation of silverware.  Eyre’s after-dinner speech showed a manufacturer acutely aware of growing competition in Sheffield’s overseas markets and the need to adapt and modernise.  Eyre was in dispute with the table-knife grinders’ union and he emphasised that the presentation did not mean that he would ‘compromise his freedom of action’ (Sheffield Independent, 15 October 1859). 

After 1863, the firm’s address was 116 Rockingham Street.  Alongside his Sheffield office and residence, Benjamin Eyre owned Brough House, in the Hope valley.  He was also chairman of the Milldam Mining Co.  He died at his residence in Collegiate Crescent on 5 September 1878, aged 66.  He was buried in Hope churchyard, near his Derbyshire residence in Brough.  He left under £2,000. 

Two years before his death, Eyre had sold his Sheffield firm and Manhattan office to the New York merchant Frederick Wiebusch (see Monumental Cutlery Co).  The latter acquired Eyre’s ‘CHALLENGE’ mark, which had been used since about 1867.  Wiebusch intended to use his Sheffield workshops as a source for best cutlery for shipment to the USA.  Wiebusch appointed a manager, George Manby, and moved Eyre’s Rockingham Street workforce to Eyre Lane.  The Sheffield Independent, 1 September 1879, reported that Wiebusch had become linked with James D. Frary (b. 1832), who had established the Frary Cutlery Co at Bridgeport, Connecticut (a company in which Wiebusch had invested).  They decided not to manufacture cutlery in Sheffield (with its problems of supervision and the US tariff), but to transfer about 130 Sheffield cutlers to Bridgeport.  These cutlers would allow Frary to expand into razors, besides table cutlery.  The transfer was arranged by Manby.

The English recruits duly set off with their tools and (it is said) casks of Sheffield water for hardening and tempering – everything apart from the ‘Sheffield shop building and Sheffield air’.  The New York Times, 7 August 1879 gave the new arrivals a patronising welcome and quoted Frary as finding the Sheffielders ‘fair physical and intellectual samples of the open, hospitable, quick-tempered, and improvident British workman – fond of his beer, taking no thought for the morrow, having no social or political ambition, content to be kicked by his superiors, and to retaliate by kicking his inferiors, if he be so fortunate as to find them.’  The newspaper added that they were ‘splendid material for a work shop, but neither so rapid nor inventive as the American workman’.  The Sheffielders were equally unimpressed by America: many returned home complaining of low wages and demands to train unskilled Europeans.  They also rebelled against Frary’s regimented factory routines (Anthony, 2012).  ‘The experiment … will probably never be attempted again’, commented The Sheffield Independent, 25 September 1880.  Manby resigned and returned to Sheffield.  Wiebusch suffered losses.  In 1884, James D. Frary & Son was bankrupt with liabilities of $60,000 (New York Times, 26 March 1884).

Wiebusch continued to use the ‘Challenge’ name.  In 1889, Challenge Razor Works was established in Bridgeport.  A decade later (after Wiebusch had died and the parent company had become Wiebusch & Hilger), Challenge Cutlery Co was launched in the same town.  Bowie and hunting knives sold by this firm were stamped ‘Challenge Cutlery Co, Sheffield, England’.  According to Goins (1998), all Challenge knives marked ‘Sheffield’ were imported before 1914.