|Sheffield soon drew Elliott and by 1821 he was living in Burgess Street where he had set up in business as an iron dealer. With a bankruptcy behind him, Elliott's approach was cautious enabling him to prosper, since he didn't
|Sheffield soon drew Elliott and by 1821 he was living in Burgess Street where he had set up in business as an iron dealer. With a bankruptcy behind him, Elliott's approach was cautious enabling him to prosper, since he didn't overextend during good times; this helped him to ride the downturns in trade which sent others to the wall. In 1829 additional premises in Gibraltar Street were acquired, and trade directories now listed Elliott as an iron merchant and steel manufacturer.
In 1834 Elliott left his Burgess Street home and workshop to concentrate on his Gibraltar Street works and to set up home in a handsome villa in rural Upperthorpe.
Although Elliott was a steel maker and refiner, he was never a member of the Cutlers' Company - that wasn't his style. Elliott's sympathies lay not with the capitalist owners but with the working man, since he was one of them himself. When he was bankrupt, he had been homeless and out of work; he had faced starvation and contemplated suicide. He knew what it was like to be impoverished and desperate and, as a result, he always identified with the poor people of Sheffield.
As a steel