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Universe Works Mary Street


duckweed

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Can anyone tell me the history of this works? I can only find one ref Picture Sheffield which says Buffer Girls at Gilpins Universe Works. What did they produce? When was the Works built?

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There seems to be 2 businesses in this block as it has Steel works and Cutlery works or does it mean they made cutlery from start to finish?

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Newspaper account 27th August 1890 Sheffield Telegraph says Jacksons London work was destroyed by fire.

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In the good old days many a merchant dealing in steel would wish to be known as a "Steel manufacturer". This practice went on until the 1980's. One merchant I knew advertised himself as a steel manufacturer and tried to pass off Firth Brown's as his own to a potential customer!

On the above list Marsh Brothers were, at some point, manufacturers but they then concentrated on merchanting steel. They became a part of the G L Willan Group.

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Newspaper account 27th August 1890 Sheffield Telegraph says Jacksons London work was destroyed by fire.

White's 1905

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Kelly's 1925

Pasley Rd. F. merchant & mnfr.
Brookes A. T. & Co. oil mers.
Mountford Frederick & Sons, machine knife manufacturers (Wellfield works).
Murfin Brothers, cutlery manfrs.
Harrison, Stocks & Co., razor strop manufacturers.
Robson Jsph. & Sons, tool mfrs.

............. Shoreham Street ............

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In the good old days many a merchant dealing in steel would wish to be known as a "Steel manufacturer". This practice went on until the 1980's. One merchant I knew advertised himself as a steel manufacturer and tried to pass off Firth Brown's as his own to a potential customer!

On the above list Marsh Brothers were, at some point, manufacturers but they then concentrated on merchanting steel. They became a part of the G L Willan Group.

So being a manufacturer was a somewhat loose term?

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Can anyone tell me the history of this works? I can only find one ref Picture Sheffield which says Buffer Girls at Gilpins Universe Works. What did they produce? When was the Works built?

Kelly's 1965

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James Jackson was from Birmingham but in Sheffield by the 1850's. He was certainly in business in 1858 when as part of the firm of Jackson, Fisher and Harney he patented improvements to the manufacturing of crinoline wire. Sheffield in 1859 was producing enough crinoline wire for half a million crinolines a week.

However for some reason things went wrong and the firm was dissolved in May 1859:

followed by a creditors sale:

and County Court proceedings in York in 1861:

But he obviously didn't give up, as by 1871 he was living at 186 Cemetery Road with his wife Jane, and was a "Manager of Steel and Iron Works"

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But where does the Universe Works come into this? Is it a new build encompassing the old London works after the fire? Is it one company or several within the one works?

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Well we know it didn't start in 2003 even by the lettering on the building plus the sole photo in Picture Sheffield of Buffer Girls at the Universe Works working at Tom Gilpins in the 1960s. There must be people still around that remember Tom Gilpins.

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Fascinating. Presumably there was a Wheel near by since it is so close to the Porter.

I think the nearest wheel would have been 'Ward's Wheel' at Sylvester Gardens on the opposite (L/H) bank of the Porter,

this map shows the area before development, London/Universe Works was later built (R/H bank) just above the sluice and weir.

Matilda Street, top R/H corner.

c.1850.

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Once surrounded by industrial buildings, and hidden from public view for over 100 years,

the weir at the back of Universe Works, Mary Street.

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Joseph Shaw

Recorded in the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent on 28th August 1851; ‘A youth named Joseph Shaw, aged 14, died at the Infirmary on Wednesday night from injuries received on 12th August. Shaw was a comb buffer and worked at Ward’s wheel, Arundel Street. On the 12th instant, while engaged in putting a band on a pulley, his right arm became entangled with the band, and was seriously fractured thereby. The sufferer was removed to the Infirmary where the arm was amputated and , as we have previously indicated, he died there on Wednesday night.’

Joseph was buried in public grave NN12, near the River Porter.

The General Cemetary – Gruesome Industrial Accidents

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