I have wanted to see in this place forever and I've been checking it regularly for a long time, so on the way home from the pub one evening last month when I saw a way in I was quite excited. My first visit, armed only with my phone, soon resulted in a fair amount of disappointment as I stumbled around what on the surface appeared to be a rapidly crumbling and seemingly empty deathtrap. However, my interest was piqued and there was enough of the place I'd still not seen that meant I couldnt just leave it there. It took a return visit with @Sheard to finally unearth some of it's hidden potential, followed by 'a few' further visits, including one in the company of @tweek and @Esoteric Eric - all of whom I thank for humouring me in my obsession with this place. It's only a derp, but it's not the kind of derp that comes up with any kind of regularity any more - and it's also the kind of place that proves that the 'UE as documenting history' thing isn't just something made up as a cover for having a naughty hobby.
Don Cutlery works is Grade 2 Listed: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-
entry/1392480?section=official-list-entry - the stuff about it being 'largely intact' is a bit laughable now, given how the state of the whole place has clearly declined dramatically since the listing was written.
The works were initially build for Southern & Richardson Cutlery who used the building from 1851 until 1910. Their corporate mark was a bird’s nest and three eggs... (slogan: 'Nest Knives are the Best Knives'). Employment was 161 in 1871; and 197 in 1881 (a quarter of them boys and girls). By the late 1880s, the workforce probably surpassed 200 (according to The Sheffield Independent, 6 September 1889, the firm employed about 300). Certainly, it was amongst the top twenty cutlery manufacturers in the town. However, working at the firm could be fatal. In 1858, a nine-year-old girl was ‘frightfully mutilated’ after entanglement in an unguarded grindstone shaft (Sheffield Independent, 2 October 1858).
Source: Southern & Richardson Ltd
Extract:
The Sheffield Boiler Disaster - 1st November 1899
More recently the building was used by J. W. Bartholomew and Sons, Sheet Metal Workers. They eventually left in 2005 to move to another site- all of the calendars still on the walls remain on the July 2005 page. The building is now owned by a nearby locksmith and security firm, who use the land round the back as a customer car park.
Here's a couple of external pics on film I took in 2019.
The rest of the photos in this thread are from the last few weeks. The typewriter dates from early 1900s and features two full sets of keys - one for capitals and one for lower case. The packets of ointments and bandages are from a first aid box - the antiseptic cream came in really handy when I stood on a rusty nail and it went all the way into my foot. The typewriter was presumably used to type out the carefully typed records, neatly filed away in two drawers - most of these dated from the 1930s and detailed orders from all over the country for items such as door knobs, fire guards, ashpans, 'hot closet plates', 'flue extension pieces' etc etc. Some of these were handwritten too. We found these, along with the typewriter, on a high shelf in a really small room that - judging from the layers of accumulated dirt on the other side of the door - hadn’t been opened for many years. The setup below was for the purpose of the photos - nobody would actually sit at a safe to use a typewriter, but given that most of the building is boarded up this was one of the few rooms that provided enough light to take a decent photo (note: on my most recent visit I noticed the typewriter has now gone walkies)
Note the Union Jack sicker on the first aid room door - I’ll come back to that later.
The newspaper was an issue of the Sheffield Star from 1991.
The stationery features the mark of long-forgotten Sheffield stationers, Pawson and Brailsford.
Of particular interest in the grade two listing from 1998 is the presence of 'a hydraulic press, electric motor, and line shafting to the rebuilt single-storey workshop'. Pretty happy when we opened another door and found... it's all still there.
A few black and white film
In the next thread I'll throw in some digi / iPhone pics and a little more related historical trivia.
Here's a couple of external pics on film I took in 2019.
The rest of the photos in this thread are from the last few weeks. The typewriter dates from early 1900s and features two full sets of keys - one for capitals and one for lower case. The packets of ointments and bandages are from a first aid box - the antiseptic cream came in really handy when I stood on a rusty nail and it went all the way into my foot. The typewriter was presumably used to type out the carefully typed records, neatly filed away in two drawers - most of these dated from the 1930s and detailed orders from all over the country for items such as door knobs, fire guards, ashpans, 'hot closet plates', 'flue extension pieces' etc etc. Some of these were handwritten too. We found these, along with the typewriter, on a high shelf in a really small room that - judging from the layers of accumulated dirt on the other side of the door - hadn’t been opened for many years. The setup below was for the purpose of the photos - nobody would actually sit at a safe to use a typewriter, but given that most of the building is boarded up this was one of the few rooms that provided enough light to take a decent photo (note: on my most recent visit I noticed the typewriter has now gone walkies)
Note the Union Jack sicker on the first aid room door - I’ll come back to that later.
The newspaper was an issue of the Sheffield Star from 1991.
The stationery features the mark of long-forgotten Sheffield stationers, Pawson and Brailsford.
Of particular interest in the grade two listing from 1998 is the presence of 'a hydraulic press, electric motor, and line shafting to the rebuilt single-storey workshop'. Pretty happy when we opened another door and found... it's all still there.
A few black and white film
In the next thread I'll throw in some digi / iPhone pics and a little more related historical trivia.
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