| Description | Joseph Bramah Cochrane was born in Stourbridge on 16th March 1840, being a son of Alexander Brodie Cochrane. In partnership with John Joseph Bramah, Alexander Brodie Cochrane had commenced business as an Ironfounder at Bilston. Subsequently, in conjunction with Alexander’s father, they founded the Woodside Ironworks and Foundry. After John Joseph Bramah's death, Cochrane was then joined by Charles Geach and A. Slate, and the firm carried on under the name of Cochrane and Co., by whom also the works belonging to the firm at Middlesborough, and known as the Ormesby Ironworks, were established.
On Alexander B. Cochrane's death in 1863, Joseph B. Cochrane became joint owner of these works with his brothers, as well as of their New Brancepeth collieries in County Durham, and the Ormesby Iron Works, Middlesbrough.
On the death of his eldest brother Charles, Joseph became the head of Cochrane & Co., and under his management the chief business, which was the manufacture of pig-iron and pipes for water and gas, was greatly developed. The firm also for many years worked a large area of mines at Woodside.
Among the large structures emanating from the Woodside Iron Works during Joseph's association are structures in London such as the Holborn Viaduct, Westminster Bridge, Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Station, and Charing Cross Railway Bridge and Station, as well as the ironwork for the Crystal Palace.
His firm also erected for the London and North Western Railway the Runcorn Bridge over the Mersey; and they removed the Hungerford Suspension Bridge over the Thames, and re-erected it as the Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol, strengthening it as required for its new position.
He was the first in the Midlands to apply Mond gas for blast-furnace purposes, having some years ago put down at the Woodside Works a valuable plant for its production. He was one of the thirty-six coal and iron masters whose names were inserted as Commissioners in the first South Staffordshire Mines Drainage Bill of 1872. He was appointed chairman of the Commission in 1893, and after occupying the position eleven years he retired through ill-health. For several years he was Chairman of the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Coal and Ironstone Miners' Wages Board and also of the Coalmasters' Association.
His death took place after a prolonged illness at his residence, Pedmore Hall, near Stourbridge, on 24th December 1908, in his sixty-ninth year.
The records in this collection pertain to the running of the Cochrane and Co. business. |
| AdminHistory | Information in description taken from Grace's Guide to British Industrial History website. |