An advertisement stated an establishment date of 1843. It began as John & Charles Ratcliff & Co, which by 1852 was involved in electro-plating in Arundel Street. Leader (1919)1 has outlined the early history of the firm, which involved the diffusion of ‘bright-plating’ technology in Birmingham from Elkington to Ratcliffe’s. Arthur Millward (see Millward, Hancock & Co) had transferred the technology to Ratcliffe; and when the latter established a Sheffield factory, Millward became manager. In the late 1850s, when Millward left, Edmund Arthur Heeley took over (he had been manager for Ratcliffe’s in Birmingham and was the son of Edmund Heeley, a Birmingham silversmith). In 1861, E. A. Heeley employed eleven men and six girls and soon afterwards the firm was restyled Heeley & Son. It advertised in the directory of 1868 and seems to have been involved in hire work, with the owners ‘entirely unconnected with Manufacturing … [and so] … may be safety intrusted [sic] with new Designs or Inventions’. The advertisement offered to colour gold jewellery ‘equal to new’. The company ceased trading after Edmund A. Heeley’s death at Norfolk Road on 6 November 1870, aged 39. He was buried in an unconsecrated grave in the General Cemetery, leaving under £4,000. The premises were next occupied by J. Y. Cowlishaw, who seems to have acquired the assets.
1. Leader, Robert E, ‘The Early History of Electro-Silver Plating,’ Journal of Institute of Metals 22 (1919)