Sheffield is internationally renowned as a leader in the steel industry and cutlery, hence it’s nickname ‘The Steel City’. The first official reference to cutlery in Sheffield is in a tax return of Robert the Cutler, which was filed in 1297.
By 1624, the date of the original Act establishing the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, there was a thriving industry producing cutlery, edge tools and agricultural implements.
The stainless steel we use in everyday household items was discovered by Harry Brearley in 1912, at the Brown Firth Laboratories in Sheffield.
We are therefore proud to be able to host the 43rd meeting of the BSPED at the Cutlers Hall in Sheffield, a renowned building that has hosted the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire since 1832.
This is the third Cutlers Hall in Sheffield, the first being built in 1638. It is a Grade 2* Listed building originally costing the Company £8,846 and is considered to be one of the finest Livery halls in the country. When the Foundation stone was laid in 1832, the Master Cutler stated that: "...this Hall is intended not only for the Cutlers’ Company, but for the general purpose of the Town” – little did he know that it would host hundreds of paediatric subspecialists!