According to records of the Company of Cutlers, the founder was John Lockwood of Ecclesfield (himself the son of John), who was apprenticed to file maker John Burgin and became a Freeman in 1767, when he was assigned the mark ‘CX’ (information from Jeff Warner). Locksley & Lockwood, file makers of Butterthwaite, was listed in the 1787 directory using that mark.
The founder apparently had two sons, John Lockwood Jun. (1769-15 October 1856) and William Lockwood (1775-1829). The latter moved to Sheffield in the 1790s and occupied premises in Arundel Street as a merchant and file manufacturer. His chief market was Scotland (Ironmonger, 28 August 1886). In 1803, he married Ann Sorby, which linked the Lockwoods to a local tool making dynasty in the Wicker (Sorby, Hobson & Co). In 1817, Lockwood & Sorby were factors in Arundel Street. In 1822, William’s business and Lockwood & Sorby were listed as merchants and file manufacturers at addresses in Arundel Street. William died on 8 July 1829 and was buried in St Mary’s churchyard, Ecclesfield. John Lockwood Jun. apparently remained nominally the senior partner until the next generation was ready to take over. William and Ann had four sons, who became the ‘Lockwood brothers’: William (1806-1873), John (1813-1876), Joseph (1815-1902), and Charles (1822-1872). By 1837, Lockwood Bros was listed in Arundel Street and soon partnered John Sorby & Sons in Spital Hill. That was dissolved in 1844, when Lockwood Bros acquired Sorby’s business and marks (re-registering ‘I. & H. SORBY’ in 1877).
In 1861, John Lockwood told the Census enumerators that he employed 500 hands. In 1865, Lockwood Bros expanded their premises in Arundel Street and a leased a newly-built portion of the works of W. & S. Butcher, which still stands as Sterling Works. The enterprise became more closely involved in cutlery. Lockwood’s nineteenth-century trade catalogues show (besides a large selection of tools) a wide range of knives. These included all types of pocket cutlery – particularly complicated sportsman’s patterns – and hunting and skinning knives. The firm registered a silver mark in 1906, though most of its output was utilitarian and aimed at overseas markets, especially South America. Its exports to that country were first marked ‘BEST HERMANOS’ (the name of an importing agency). According to William Lockwood, by 1862 German counterfeiting had forced the company to adopt another mark: a Pampas rhea (an ostrich-like flightless bird) with the words ‘REAL KNIFE’ and ‘PAMPA’. The firm’s main trade mark was ‘C:X’. Lockwood’s also acquired a Maltese cross ‘L’ mark, which had been popular in the North American market and may have been owned by Joseph Antt and Benjamin Fenton. Other names and marks included Robert Baxter & Co, which was stamped on cutlery alongside a monkey.
Three Lockwood brothers died in the early 1870s. Charles at Greno House, Grenoside, on 12 June 1872, aged 63 (burial at Burngreave cemetery); William at Farm Bank, on 20 February 1873, aged 66 (burial in Ecclesfield); and John (aged 63) at Williamson Road, Sharrow, on 12 September 1876 (his burial was in Ecclesall). Lockwood’s remained one of the leading cutlery and tool firms in Sheffield in the late nineteenth century. In 1881, about 400 workers were employed. A decade later, the firm vacated its Arundel Street premises (to be succeeded by C. W. Fletcher) and moved to the Spital Hill factory of Sorby and became a limited company (capital £50,000). The directors were Joseph Lockwood; George Francis Lockwood (1850-1919), who was the son of John Lockwood and a great-grandson of the founder; and Thomas Porter Lockwood (1853-1934), who was the son of Charles. Joseph, the last of the brothers, died on 27 August 1902, aged 87. He was buried in Fulwood. The latter’s son, William, had died on 13 December 1890, aged 42, at his residence The Grange, Ranmoor.
The management devolved upon George F. Lockwood. He had been born on 10 January 1850. When he became Master Cutler in 1886, aged 36, he was one of the youngest holders of the office. But by the First World War, Lockwood’s was in decline and losing money. The business had once made each of the Lockwoods a fortune (Charles, William, John, and Joseph had left, respectively, nearly £12,000, £40,000, £30,000 and £12,000). When George Lockwood died in Barnsley Road on 21 March 1919, aged 69, he left only £4,281. He was buried in Ecclesall churchyard. In that year, the firm became part of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers Ltd, a group of cutlery firms led by Needham, Veall & Tyzack. Lockwood’s did no better allied with firms such as Joseph Elliot. By 1927, after years of losses, Lockwood’s assets and marks had been acquired by Elliot. The Sorby marks were sold in 1932 to Turner, Naylor & Co Ltd.