Advertisement from 1863 Directory. Image courtesy of Geoff Tweedale.
George Horridge (c.1780-1843), a pen knife cutler, married Elizabeth Ashforth in 1804. By 1816, Ashforth & Horridge was listed as a pen and sportsman knife manufacturers at Eyre Lane. The partners were John Ashforth and George Horridge. This was dissolved in 1823. George Horridge next formed Horridge & Hallam with Robert Hallam (Robert Hallam & Son). This firm traded in silver fruit-knives and ‘all sorts of fancy pen-knives’, first in Green Lane and then in Silver Street. Horridge & Hallam ceased trading in 1837. In the early 1840s, George Horridge was a pen and pocket knife manufacturer in Eyre Street, with another address at a ‘tract depository’ in St James’s Row. He was a Congregationalist at Howard Street Independent Chapel. Horridge was also a partner at this time with Joseph Rhodes & Co, which was an ivory, stag, and horn scale cutter in Pea Croft. George Horridge died on 28 May 1843, aged 63.
Henry Horridge – George’s son by his wife, Elizabeth – was born on 23 February 1810 and baptised at Howard Street Chapel. He was first listed in 1845 as a razor and spring knife manufacturer in Eyre Street, with a house in Greenhill. He partnered John Fielding Jun. in Howard Street, but this was dissolved in 1861. By 1862, Henry had moved to Central Works in West Street, where he advertised as a maker of pen, pocket, and sporting knives, razors and table knives. He displayed his products at the London International Exhibition (1862), where his principal article was ‘a sporting knife, containing 15 blades and instruments. It is five inches long, the handle of carved pearl, with shield, bolsters and pins of gold; the linings of silver gilt; and the backs of the springs of the blades, etc., are decorated in an elegant style, the manner of which in steel is novel’ (Sheffield Independent, 3 May 1862). In 1871, Henry employed seven men and two boys. By 1883, the address was Portland Works, West Street. Henry Horridge, Newbould Lane, died on 1 September 1890, aged 80. His burial in the General Cemetery was unconsecrated. He left £258. The business was continued for a few years, perhaps by one of his sons, George or Fred. But it was not listed by 1898.