Small-scale manufacture of pen knife and pocket knife developed in the early 19th century, The suburb became more accessible with the construction of first a turnpike from Sheffield to the terminus of the River Don Navigation at Tinsley, then the opening of the Sheffield Canal, running to the south of the village. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a frequent proposal to widen this to form a Sheffield Ship Canal, to terminate in a basin at Attercliffe.