Y11 Ambassadors - Visit to the Cutlers Hall

Report by Mr Rowbotham

 

Three hundred year old tables, wall to wall elephants and the biggest penknife I've ever seen. Just some of the amazing things on show at the Cutlers' Hall.

 

On Monday, 6^th February we were lucky enough to be invited there, ‘we' being the Y11 Ambassadors, Mrs Nightingale, Miss Innocent and myself. We mustn't forget Mr Machin though, who drove us there and back.

 

I'm a Sheffielder born and bred but I really didn't know what to expect. I went to a wedding there once and I've walked past the front door a lot but that's about it. The front door itself doesn't look that imposing really, other than having quite a few steps up to it. It's when you get inside that the place springs to life.

 

It turns out that the Cutlers' Hall is one of the largest buildings in the city. It may not be very wide at the front but it stretches back a long, long way. The front door is opposite the Cathedral but the end of it backs on to Fargate. The staircase, with its deep pile carpet, mirror at the top and a huge portrait of The Queen, did not fail to impress us. A hush descended upon us as we took it all in.

 

We were met by Colonel George Kilburn, the clerk of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. Amongst other things, he told us that the company had been established in 1624 by Parliament to make sure that the blades that were being made here were up to scratch and not shoddy seconds. He also told us about the important role that the Company and the Cutlers' Hall plays today trying to attract manufacturing business to our part of the world. His thirty years in the Army set him up well for this role. A good man to have in your corner.

 

After that, we were taken on a tour by Dr Joan Unwin, the archivist, who knows all there is to know about the Company and the Hall. Her knowledge was truly impressive. We were shown all the year pieces, a piece of silver from every year that the Company has been around. She brightened up a rather dour portrait of Thomas ‘Tommy' Ward with a story about Lizzie the Elephant. During World War 1, all the able bodied horses were taken by the Government to do war work. Enter Lizzie, an ex-circus elephant, who was employed pulling wagons of steel and scrap around for the resourceful Tommy. Hence the elephants in just about every room and on the coat of arms.

 

Next we were shown some light fittings and a wooden wall panel that had been taken from The Olympic, sister ship to The Titanic. When they were making the film, researchers were sent to the Cutlers' Hall from Hollywood to study these pieces. Just imagine, a real live link with Leonardo DiCaprio just up from the High Street!

 

The Ambassadors were impressed by the amazing craftsmanship and sheer volume of silver on display. Call me a saddo, but I was highly impressed by a wooden table that was over 300 years old and looked in better nick than the one in my dining room. The others were more impressed by the Norfolk Knife, a penknife about two feet high, six inches deep with more tools and engraved blades than I could count.

 

I was thoroughly impressed both by the place and the reaction of our Ambassadors. Don't take my word for it though. Student, James Lay said "As soon as you stepped inside, you could feel the history of the building from every direction." Student, Jack Rogers said "I never knew there was so much history behind the knife and fork."

They obviously liked us too. They put our picture on their website.