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Richards was founded in the 1930s by two German brothers whose names were actually Paul and Stefan Richartz. They came from Solingen in Germany (like sheffield a big cutlery manufacturing town) and they brought with them a skilled production engineer, Wilhelm Müller. The name of the firm was changed to Richards just before the Second World War. They mass-produced knives, scissors etc. which had the "lamp-post" trade mark. Their original factory was badly damaged in the war and in 1946 they moved to a new building at 55 Moore Street site - where Wickes is now. It was probably the largest cutlery-manufacturing firm in Sheffield, though the "traditional" cutlers tended to look down on them in view of their cheap, mass-produced output. My brother-in-law was caretaker there in the 1960s, by which time Müller was running the firm. Richards was bought out in 1977 by the Imperial Knife Company of the U.S.A. Richards closed in 1983 and the factory was demolished. Wilhelm Müller died aged 77 in 1982.