From an Edinburgh firm of harness makers founded early in the 1900s, the Hendry & Bishop shop quickly grew to be one of Britain's largest manufacturers of golf clubs. Run predominantly by the Bishop family for the first twenty years it was purchased and reorganized in 1929 by outside investors. They were a firm of true cleek makers producing only iron clubs.

The Hendry and Bishop mark of the bishop’s mitre was registered in 1911 and readily associated with the name of the firm. Soon afterwards, they began producing clubs marked Mitre Brand. Later models included their famous Cardinal, Master and Edina series. Another later set was named "Auld Reekie," a Scottish colloquial term that translated to Old Smokey, the nickname of the city of Edinburgh. Hendry & Bishop made the historic Stopum backspin irons for Ben Sayers in 1914 and after those deep groove clubs were banned in 1922 they produced many of the Cardinal model giant niblicks in the mid-1920s. Like so many other Scottish firms, their club making activity was terminated by the Second World War.

In their heyday in the mid 1920s, they not only made many thousands of their own clubs but also manufactured private lines for other makers and stores. Many Hendry & Bishop clubs were imported to the United States by New York’s Harry C. Lee Company which often added its acorn mark.

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