Landlord Voice Magazine September 2015 - Sheffield | Page 10

Sheffield | Through the Years

13th Century
The town of Sheffield is formed
following England’s occupation
by the forces of William the
Conqueror and the construction of
a castle to protect its inhabitants.
By the end of the 1200s a market is
established at what is now known
as Castle Square and Sheffield
becomes a market town.

14th-15th
Centuries
The town establishes a reputation
for knives and by the early 15th
century it has become the main hub
for cutlery manufacture outside
London.
Sheffield’s flair for cutlery-making
continues to this day – with
companies such as Sheffield
Cutlery.com supplying clients
ranging from Harrods to the Sultan
of Brunai.

The foundations of a city made of steel

18th Century
By 1740 Lincolnshire-born toolmaker
Benjamin Huntsman had further developed the
crucible steel technique from his workshop in
Handsworth, Sheffield, making it stronger in
comparison to previous forms.
It is the work of Sheffield-born metallurgist
Harry Brearley which is most-acclaimed even if
the man himself and the city where his work was
conducted is less so.
By 1912 he had developed a new chromium
steel mix which was less prone to rusting while
leading a Sheffield research laboratory called
Brown Firth Laboratories.

20th Century
to present day
The work of Sheffield man FB
Pickering during the 1960s, 1970s and
1980s was instrumental in developing
high-strength, low-alloy steels.
And to this day Sheffield’s most
famous steel works, Forgemasters,
maintains a global reputation for its
forgings and castings and is certified
to produce nuclear components.

And this new material, most famously known as
stainless steel became the material of choice for
cutlery manufacture – a fortunate turn of events
for the City with its busy cutlery-works.

10 | LandlordVoice | September 2015

September 2015 | LandlordVoice | 11