This company was established in 1829 by Philip Ashberry, a spoon maker, who had been born in Leicester in about 1807.  He was based in Copper Street, but eventually crossed over Gibraltar Street into Bowling Green Street, near Kelham Island.  In 1849, an advertisement in the local directory illustrated Ashberry’s Britannia Metal Works & Public Rolling Mill as a maker of spoons, tea, and coffee pots, and rolled tin.  Despite the grand engraving, the works was apparently a ground floor metal shop with a small furnace,  a first floor for cutting horn scales with small circular saws, and an attic workshop for buffing spoons.  In 1851, most of Ashberry’s workforce was female (18 men, 7 boys, and 48 women and girls). 

According to the Ashberry monument in Burngreave cemetery, Philip Ashberry and his wife Elizabeth had seven sons – though only six have been traced in written sources.  They were  John Arthur Ashberry (c.1830-1884);  Philip Henry Ashberry (c.1835-1909); George Willis Ashberry (c.1837-1918);  Walter Frederick Ashberry (1843-1863); Bernard Horam Ashberry (1846-1886); and Maurice Herbert Ashberry (1849-1870).  In 1856, the business was restyled Philip Ashberry & Son (with John A. Ashberry as partner).  By 1861, Ashberry’s employed about 100 workers.  By 1865, when it lodged a £312 Sheffield Flood claim (which included £1 for four bottles of sherry!), the firm was Philip Ashberry & Sons, with the addition of George W. Ashberry and Philip H. Ashberry.  That partnership was dissolved in 1871.  John Arthur established his own firm – Sheffield Plate Works, Love Street – but this was liquidated in 1875.  Meanwhile, Philip and his sons Philip H., George W., and Bernard H. Ashberry operated the original firm.  The trade mark was ‘BRITANNIA’ (picture and words); and a claw brandishing a spear.  When Ashberry’s began electro-plating, it registered silver marks in 1872 and 1892.  A detailed review of Ashberry marks is contained in Scott (1980)¹.

Philip Ashberry was a Guardian of the Poor and frequently featured in the local press, because of disputes with fellow Guardians (Drinkall, 2011²).  As a Town Councillor, he took particular interest in smoke pollution.  He retired from business in 1878.  Philip H. Ashberry became the senior partner and in 1881 told the Census that he employed 150 hands.  The founder died at Wellfield House, Crookesmoor Side, on 10 February 1881, aged 74.  An obituarist noted that, ‘his principal delight [was] the study of ornithology, and he had many specimens of the feathered tribe in his garden’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 11 February 1881).  He was buried in Burngreave, leaving nearly £3,000.  Bernard H. Ashberry died in Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 11 June 1886 (aged 39) and was buried in Fulwood, leaving £15,200. 

The firm became a private limited company in 1899, with a capital of £50,000 and the shares kept within the family.  The directors were Philip H. Ashberry, George Willis Ashberry, and  Maurice Ashberry Sanderson.  The latter was the son of William Sanderson and his wife Elizabeth  (apparently Philip Ashberry’s daughter).  Another director, Alfred Naylor, died on 18 October 1907, leaving £2,469.  Philip H. Ashberry died on 3 January 1909 and was cremated at Intake Cemetery.  He left £13,771.  The firm apparently employed about 200 workers.  In 1910, it was reorganised as Philip Ashberry & Sons Ltd, with a capital of £40,000 and Maurice A. Sanderson as managing director.

George W. Ashberry, Mona House, Westbourne Road, died on 12 August 1918, aged 81.  He was buried in Fulwood, leaving £20,373.  His spinster daughters – Rosa, Constance, and Gertrude – inherited Ashberry’s and continued to run it with the company secretary, Ernest C. Cockbill.  In 1933, Ashberry’s was wound up.  In 1935, Lewis, Rose & Co Ltd purchased the site and demolished the old factory.  The stock and goodwill were sold to George Butler’s, which continued to use the Ashberry name in Eyre Street.  When Butler’s was liquidated in 1952,  ‘Ashberry’ was acquired by Lewis, Rose and the address again became Bowling Green Street.  ‘Ashberry’ can still be seen carved above the entrance to the old factory.  This has proved more permanent than the company, which was later owned by tool maker Spear & Jackson.  It was then sold in 1976 for £400,000 to French cutlery group Degrenne.  ‘Ashberry’ is now defunct.

^1. Scott, Jack L, Pewter Wares from Sheffield (Baltimore, 1980)

^2. Drinkall, Margaret, Sheffield Workhouse (Sheffield, 2011)