Cowans Sheldon

Post date: 09-Feb-2009 17:32:29

Cowans Sheldon are a British railway crane-manufacturing company, founded in 1846 near Carlisle by John Cowans (1816-1873), Edward Pattinson Sheldon (1815-1881), and brothers William and Thomas Bouch (see Alan Earnshaw, (2004), Carlisle's Crane Makers: The Cowans Sheldon Story).

In 1898, "Messrs. Cowans, Sheldon and Company" were working on a 42 foot train engine turntable for South Africa, according to a record in the National Archives.

Many of the company's cranes ended up in South Africa, including a 50 ton dockside crane at Cape Town's Sturrock Graving Dock, ordered by the British Admiralty in 1940 (Source: "Cowans Sheldon 50 ton Dockside Crane", InternationalMeccanoMen.org.uk).

In 2008, the Sandstone Heritage Trust, which seeks to preserve South Africa's agricultural, transportation, rail and rural heritage, published a report voicing their concerns over the loss of Cowans Sheldon steam cranes (see "A Crisis Looms for Remaining Steam Cranes" (PDF), Sandstone-Estates.com).

In 1968, Cowans Sheldon became a division of the Clarke Chapman Group (Source: "Messrs Cowans, Sheldon Ltd., London Road, Carlisle", NationalArchives.gov.uk).