• A member of the Baddeley family of potters

• Henry William Baddeley (b.1807 d.1864) was the son of the pottery manufacturer William Baddeley II. 
  Confusingly Henry William Baddeley often went by his middle name and is referred to in some accounts and trade directories as 'William Baddeley' - to add to the confusion his father and grandfather were both named William and so was his son. 

• Henry William Baddeley was an inventive man: 

  • he was the first to make telegraph insulators in iron moulds;

  • also produced imitation stag, buck, and buffalo-horn and bone handles for the cutlery trade;

  • and invented the thimble placing rack
    

• In Queen Street, Hanley he produced terra-cotta articles; and a large trade was carried on in earthenware knobs for tin and japanned tea and coffee-pots. 
  He also made fancy pipes, japanned terra-cotta, and other goods.

• At the Market Lane Works, Hanley, he was the first to make telegraph insulators in iron moulds with screw and lever pressure.

• In 1846 he moved his business to Wharf Street in Longton and started making imitation stag, buck, and buffalo-horn and bone handles for the cutlery trade in Sheffield. Although successful, their introduction brought Baddeley into direct conflict with the Sheffield "working handlers," who refused to fit them to cutlery - threats were issued to manufacturers, warnings given that works would be destroyed, and on one occasion Baddeley himself was attacked when visiting Sheffield. Under such pressure, the trade in these handles was abandoned. 

• After the manufacture of cutlery handles was discontinued. Mr. Baddeley "invented the thimble placing rack, now so extensively used; this he sold to Elias Leak, of Longton, who, in 1856, took out a patent for the invention." See the patent application in the August 1856 edition of the Journal of the Society of Arts. [retrieved 18 April 2026] 

• At sometime he married Elizabeth Taylor Caulkin, who continued the business after his death in 1864. 

Introduction of Imitation Knife Handles

After moving to Wharf Street, Longton, in 1846, Henry William Baddeley introduced a novel line of manufacture—imitation stag, buck, and buffalo horn and bone handles for knives and forks intended for the Sheffield cutlery trade. 

These handles, made in terra-cotta and designed to replicate natural materials, appear to have met with commercial success. 

However, their introduction brought Baddeley into direct conflict with the Sheffield "working handlers," who refused to fit them to cutlery. 

The innovation was regarded as a threat to established crafts, and a campaign of intimidation followed: threats were issued to manufacturers, warnings given that works would be destroyed, and on one occasion Baddeley himself was attacked when visiting Sheffield. Under such pressure, the trade in these handles was abandoned. 

This episode reflects the wider climate of industrial tension in Sheffield during the period, later exemplified by the so-called Sheffield Outrages, in which new methods and materials were sometimes resisted with extreme measures.

Note: The intimidation described here accords with the so-called Sheffield Outrages, investigated by a Royal Commission in 1867 and involving threats, explosions, and violence within the Sheffield cutlery trades. 

Wikipedia article on the Sheffield Outrages  »

Market Lane

"At the Market Lane Works, he was the first to make telegraph insulators in iron moulds with screw and lever pressure"

Queen Street

"in Queen Street, Hanley for the manufacture of terra-cotta articles; and a large trade was carried on in earthenware knobs for tin and japanned tea and coffee-pots. He also made fancy pipes, japanned terra-cotta, and other goods"

The Ordnance Survey map shown was revised in 1898 and published in 1900 - so is some 50 years after the move to Longton. 

This typical scene, long vanished, was in St. Martin's Lane, Longton. One visiting writer described it as "Victorian industrialism in its dirtiest and most cynical aspect" 

explore more on St. Martin's Lane »

In 1846 Henry William Baddeley moved his business from Hanley to Longton - initially at Wharf Street, where imitation stag, buck, and buffalo-horn and bone handles for knives and forks were made. 

Mr. Baddeley, who died in 1864, held the St. Martin's Lane Works, and his widow [Elizabeth] carried on business in Commerce Street from 1864 to 1875.