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Taylor's Eye Witness Works is an industrial building situated on Milton Street in the Devonshire Quarter area of Sheffield city centre, South Yorkshire, England. The works are a Grade II listed building which since their foundation in 1852 have always specialised in producing kitchen and pocket knives along with various associated products. The building is believed to be the only traditional works in Sheffield which still manufactures its original products. It stands next to the Beehive Works another listed cutlery works on Milton Street. ==History== John Taylor founded a knife and edge tools firm around the year 1820 in St. Phillip’s Road in the Netherthorpe area of the city. In 1838 Taylor applied for and was granted the Eye Witness trademark for his goods, it is said he chose it after being inspired by the line "No eye hath seen such" from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. In 1852 Taylor moved to the newly built Eye Witness Works on Milton Street. At the time the works only consisted of five single storey bays and were driven by steam power with a 40 foot chimney stack which is still in place today. Upon the death of John Taylor in 1854 the firm passed to his daughter who had married into the Needham family who were also knife producers.〔''"A History Of Sheffield"'', David Hey, ISBN 1-85936-110-2, Page 209-210 Gives some history.〕 The company became known as Needhams Ltd, joining forces with James Veall in 1876 and the well-known local firm of Tyzack’s in 1879 to form Needham, Veall & Tyzack. In 1870 the firm only employed 30 people, but such was its success in the latter years of the 19th century that by the 1890s there were several hundred people employed at the works. In 1875 the Eye Witness Works were extended by making the original single-floor building into three storeys plus the addition of a further nine bays, which were also on three levels. The firm become a limited company in 1897 with capital of £60,000 with Walter Tyzack as chairman and James and William Veall as directors.〔( Tyzack‘s company history. ) Gives history of firm.〕 An account of the mechanised procedure and products at the Eye Witness Works can be found in an 1897 edition of Sheffield and Rotherham Illustrated, here is an excerpt: After World War I the firm was hit by the downturn in demand for high quality pocket knives brought on by the invention of stainless steel, but mechanised its production process and survived. The firm started to expand again, taking over several well-known Sheffield cutlery companies and their trademarks. The works continued to enlarge with this upturn in business, with new buildings being added on Thomas Street in 1950. In 1965 Needham, Veall & Tyzack became known as Taylor’s Eye Witness to take advantage of its well-known trade mark. In 1975 it was bought by Harrison Fisher & Co who continued to use the Taylor’s Eye Witness brand name for many of its products as well as producing "own label" goods for department stores including John Lewis, Tesco and Sainsbury's.〔( Design Council website. ) Gives details of supply to supermarkets.〕〔( Worldknives.com. ) Gives some history and examples of products.〕 On 1 June 2007 Harrison Fisher & Co Ltd changed its name to Taylors Eye Witness Limited.〔( Taylor‘s Eye Witness website. ) Gives details of name change, quote and some history.〕 In February 2007 the works were upgraded as a listed building from Grade II to Grade II *, but later reverted to Grade II. Although the building has an interesting frontage, after 20th century intervention there are few internal features of historical interest. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Taylor's Eye Witness Works」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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