Today we’ve found some photos of one of the most famous employers in Carlisle - Cowans Sheldon, the cranemakers.
The company was founded in 1846 in Upperby and had a world-leading reputation in the construction of rail and dock cranes which were exported across the world.
The business moved to a new site at St Nicholas, Carlisle at the end of London Road in 1857.
In 1933 the largest floating crane in the world was manufactured by Cowans Sheldon, then the world’s leading crane makers. The massive crane was assembled in the Nagasaki dockyard in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It had a lifting capacity of 350 tons. During both World Wars the company boomed due to the high demands placed upon heavy engineering for both the war effort and home front.
In 1969 Clarke Chapman of Gateshead bought the firm and following a merger in 1982 with John Boyd the firm was renamed Cowans Boyd. However the omens for the firm were not good due to the decline of Britain’s heavy industries and tThe St Nicholas works closed in 1987.
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