Frank Cobb (1878-1957), the son of Frank (an engine turner) and Martha, was raised in Petre Street.  After working as a clerk in an electro-plate factory, in 1903 he founded a business in West Street.  He transferred three years later to Howard Works, Howard Street.  He made plated goods and registered silver marks at Sheffield Assay Office in 1903, 1905, and 1907.  In the difficult 1920s and early 1930s, Cobb prospered.  In 1923, he purchased Boardman, Glossop & Co, Clarence Works, Pond Street; and apparently Walter Latham & Son.  By 1927, the firm’s workforce (about 250) was reportedly busy at both factories.  Cobb’s made table knives, especially in stainless steel, besides most types of plated goods. 

In the early 1930s, Cobb featured regularly in the New Year trade supplement of The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, when the business expanded significantly.  Cobb purchased the silver and electro-plate firm of W. S. Savage & Co in Pond Street.  In 1933, when the Corporation needed the Pond site for a bus station, Cobb relocated to Shrewsbury Works (formerly Martin, Hall) in Broad Street, which he renamed Howard Works.  Trade marks included ‘FC’ (registered in 1934), ‘FC & CO LTD’, and ‘COBRA’, besides Martin, Hall’s ‘MARTINOID’ and ‘MARTIN’.

The firm was incorporated in 1947, with £40,000 capital.  Frank Cobb died at his home, Newlyn, Ivy Park Road, Ranmoor, on 25 July 1957, aged 79.  He had been a Freemason and a Wesleyan lay preacher (the funeral was at Wesley Church in Fulwood Road).  He left £11,573.  At that time, the firm’s principal products were silver and EPNS flatware, hand-soldered cutlery, and ivory and xylonite-handled table cutlery.  In 1979, its longest-serving worker was Fred Meldrum, aged 90, who had worked on the corner of Broad Street for first Martin, Hall and then Cobb’s for 77 years (Quality, July/August 1979).  In 1983, Cobb’s purchased the holloware business of Cooper Bros, incorporating it in the Frank Cobb Group of Companies.  The Group was liquidated in 1986.