Thread: Mystery Razor: Claughton Bros Leeds

Hi all,

I'm new around here. I recently acquired an old razor that evidently belonged to my great-great-grandfather, and was possibly brought to Canada with him from Scotland.

The only indication of a maker is "Claughton Bros, Leeds" on the tang. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much info about this maker on the web, so I was hoping someone around here might be able to point me in the right direction.

Here are some photos. The blade appears to be pretty good for its age. I'm not sure what the scales are made of (bone?), but as you can see they are broken, and I will probably make a new set for it out of hardwood at some point.

Thanks!

I'm not able to help you out one bit about that distributor/maker.
All I can say is that as a lifelong Leeds United supporter since 74, I want to find one myself now

Plus 1 to that, having been brought up in Leeds I also want one.

The only Leeds straight maker I read of years ago was based on Kirkgate near the old market area.

Welcome to SRP, Jehu. Your great-great grandfather was he a plumber or something related to plumbing? The reason im asking is because i research Claughton Brothers from Leeds, turns out the company was established in 1879 by Garnett Claughton. That said as you can see from the advertisement below that firm didnt have anything to do with cutlery, mainly plumbing water closet, lead pipes, gutters etc.


Then i looked for W. D. Muncaster from Carlisle, from the razor box.Turns out that Mr Muncaster was a plumber, listed in the National Registration of Plumbers.

Im thinking that Claughton Bros had razors made for them with their name on the tang from a Sheffield maker, and gave them away as gift to good customer and had their name put on the razor box, possibly.
Its a nice razor, family heirloom and all, the scales are horn. Enjoy!

Wow, thanks for the info, Martin! That's certainly more than I was able to dig up. I'm not sure he was a plumber (I believe he came to Canada in the military and then worked as a prison guard), but I will do some asking around in my family.

And thanks also for confirming the scale material. I actually meant horn in my original post, no idea why I said bone.

Cheers,
Jay

Wow think of the storys that razor could tell....nice.

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd follow up to let you know that I did finally make a new set of scales for the family razor. I used some scraps I had around the shop, a bit of Arizona Cypress with a Puriri wedge.






Best,
Jay

Hello Jehu,

I hope you are well. We are cousins as my grandmother is of the Claughton Family. I signed up because I was interested where you got your Razor from since I wanted one. Please if you see this contact me on instagram @larry.reeve. My grandfather has well documented family tree with six names I am taking on the gauntlet of carry this on.

Thank you!

Lawrence

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Jehu has not logged on since July 2019