Taylor's Eye Witness Works

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…

The building is constructed from red brick; ordinary-quality bricks were used for the original construction while a harder and darker engineering brick was used for the later buildings. The building is rectangular in shape, and is delimited by Milton Street, Thomas Street, Headford Street, and Egerton Lane, at the rear. There are three internal courtyards, but much of this space has been infilled by other buildings over the years. The main range of the works on Milton Street has 30 bays of windows and some basements. There is an arched carriage entrance with double wooden doors.