Established in 1899 by James Neill (1858-1930) – the son of a wealthy Rotherham industrialist, George Neill (1831-1899) – this firm manufactured crucible steel.  In 1904, it occupied Composite Works, Napier Street.  Neill branched into tools, especially hacksaws and saws by taking over Spear & Jackson.  After the First World War, James Neill also began the manufacture of safety razors, using the trade mark ‘ECLIPSE’, which had earlier been used by Gilbert Bros.  The blades were made by the American market leader, Gillette.  The razors never made money for Neill’s and their manufacture has been described as ‘an expensive hobby of the founder’ (Wright, 1989¹).  Quality was the keynote and the razors were turned in solid brass, with a magnet to pick up the blade.  ‘No More Cut Fingers’, declared one advertisement, which also provided a free trial blade tucked under a flap on the page (Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, 1948).  One worker recalled the razor shop in the 1930s, where there was ‘a fearful banging noise which went on all the time’.   German bombers silenced the banging and production never resumed.    A more detailed account of Neill’s was published in G. Tweedale, Directory of Sheffield Tool Manufacturers, 1740-2018 (2020).

^1. Wright, Frazer, James Neill: A Century of Quality and Service 1889-1989 (Sheffield, 1989)