Cravens, Staniforth Road?

[alantalbot]

They made trains there as well in the 1950-60's

 

Think you mean railway carriages.

[dennisgwild]

used to know several bodymakers and trimmers who worked at Cravens and then when things changed for the worse got jobs at Queen road --STD(later SYPTE)

[1960boy]

Joe Vinter died from Craven's Curse dennisgwild...if you did'nt know.

[dennisgwild]

Joe Vintner--what a great guy--he came from a bit of a so called rough side of town --i never heard him swear or drink but dont think this made him any the less for it---he was a really good footballer, and I never heard him say a bad word about anyone---I used to go swimming with him on wednesday nights when the transport swimming club had the use of Glossop rd baths---his then girlfriend was also a quiet type and for some reason although it wasn,t her real name he called her Britget---sorry to hear this bad news about Joe----another guy who died of this terrible disease was Roy Askham ,from the plant department --he must have died about 10 years ago

[billyp]

Fred vintner and graham Coe both worked there and died young

[Trevor A]

I worked at Craven Tasker in the late 1970's, early 80's as a Draughtsman. I saw a name in the thread above "George Elam" who I also remember. I think he was a foreman in one of the manufacturing shops, of which there were many.

 

Whilst I was there, they manufactured articulated semi trailers, box vans (Taskvan), refrigerated vans (Taskold), and containers. I also remember being involved in the design of several unusual projects there such as refuse vehicles which went to Wakefield Council.

 

I remember the WW2 aeroplane wings that were still in parts of the factory then, and I believe they belonged to Westland Lysanders. Prior to semi trailer manufacture they built railway carriages, including the Royal train for the King of Siam, which when it was built a wall of the plant had to be knocked down to get the carriage out.

 

One fond memory of the place was the painting by David Shepherd of the inside of the factory full of railway carriages. A truly wonderful large picture by the artist famed for his paintings of elephants.

 

As I remember the workforce suffered from emphysema, but it was not asbestos that caused the problem. They used to use a polyurethane foam that was pumped into the cavity walls of the refrigerated vehicles, and sanded away afterwards to get the panel sizes right. The dust was awful, and certainly even caused problems to the labour force then.

 

I left Cravens Taskers, I think it was just after the demise of Bone Cravens. They had another group company on the site renting out vehicles for fleets - might have been called Trailerent!

 

I lived for a while on Main Road, probably only 200yds from the gates. Remember having lunch in Darnall Libs, and the two pubs on Main Road. I know Dennis Barker died a few years back, but others in the drawing office when I was there included Brian Thurman, and Roy. I even bought a car from Brian (Mk 1 Cortina with bench seat, and column auto gear change).

 

There was a sales office next to us with another Brian in, became a good friend until I ended up moving away from Sheffield in about 83 ish.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Trevor A
more to add

[beezerboy]

Aye,they started making 20 ft and 40 ft containers in 1968/69 and most went empty to either Renfrew or Greenock,occasionally Southampton.There were no twistlocks on trailers in those days so they were roped on,some trailers were only 36 ft so there was a bit of overhang.

Some hauliers went up to Greenock and back in a shift................

 

The 36' trailers were a goose neck ordered by a large shipping company ( Sealand) and had a different standard so that you had to use their ships but it didn,t catch on.

Edited February 23, 2015 by beezerboy

[little malc]

Cravens played an important part during the war, they made the wings for the Horsa glider, Rolls-Royce Merlin engine exhaust manifolds, and parts for Lancaster and Lincoln bombers. They also made gun limbers, gun mountings, gun turrets, ammunition racks and boxes and thousands of stampings and component parts for armoured vehicles.

[steviered]

My Great Grandfather Walter Pearce was a Master Coachpainter at Craven and worked on the royal train for the King of Siam.The story goes that while the train was over there it got damaged somehow, and the King paid for a gang of men To go over to repair it.

He suffered with Parkinson's disease in later life, but they used to say put a paintbrush or a pint of beer in his hand and he was steady as a rock.

 

My Frather Walt Redfern worked there in the 50s and 60s too.

 

During the Blitz they dropped a land mine on Cravens but it didn't do as much damage as Maggie Thatcher did.

[lizbiz]

My father, John Brady of Eagle Castings, Matilda street, was asked by Cravens to produce a quantity of the royal crests for the King of Siams train carriage. They are the crests that were used and photographed.