Biographical Account: John Lingard was listed as a maker of spring knives, Spanish dirks, and bowie, dagger and hunting knives. In 1850 he registered a switchblade design in which a large dagger blade is released when you press on a smaller penknife blade, the same type of mechanism which is used in the knife at the top of this page. John Lingard was one of the hundreds of cutlers that worked on a small scale and had their workshops within their home. This type of working was more usual within Sheffield than the large scale factories that began to be established from the 1830s onwards. John Lingard also ran The Star pub from his work and home address, 83 Pea Croft. Several Lingard family members lived on Pea Croft (now Solly Street) in the nineteenth century