The founder was Saint Arnaud Creake (1855-1928), who was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, the son of John Creake (a grocer’s warehouseman) and his wife, Elizabeth.  By 1881, St Arnaud Creake was working in Sheffield as a cabinet upholstery bookkeeper.  Apparently, he launched his business in 1886 and registered a silver mark (SAC) at St Mary’s Road in 1892.  The Watchmaker, Jeweller & Silversmith (1 August 1892) stated: ‘This firm, although only about ten years old, had been, for some time, gradually extending its borders, and has now developed into a compactly-built factory forming the four sides of a square’. 

By 1895, the firm was Hammond, Creake & Co, based at 63 St Mary’s Road, and manufacturing (or factoring) a wide range of silverware and electro-plate.  Hammond is unidentified and the firm’s cutlery was sometimes simply marked ‘CREAKE’.  An early speciality was oak-mounted goods (such as biscuit boxes): hence Oak Works.  A trade catalogue (in the author’s possession) shows, inter alia, tea and coffee services, cruets (also depicted in the company trade mark),  fish carvers, cased cutlery, juvenile sets, and pocket silver fruit-knives.  In 1898 and 1899, the firm was prosecuted (and fined) for employing child labour (Sheffield Independent, 19 January 1899). 

In 1922, the firm became a private limited company, with £16,000 capital.  Creake was the permanent director and chairman.  Other directors included St Arnaud Creake Jun., Frank Mason, and H. Maclaurin .  Mason was an expert in silver-plating, who had been recruited from Mappin & Webb, and was soon appointed joint managing director (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 29 March, 8 April 1922).  Besides plated wares, the company produced stainless table knives, marked ‘H C’ with a Jewish star.  Saint Arnaud Creake, Alma Villa, Crescent Road, died on 23 April 1928.  He was buried at City Road, leaving £19,347.   By 1934, Montague L. Jackson was a director (see James Ryals).   After the mid-1930s the company apparently ceased trading.