John Smith Cranes

This advert for John Smith Cranes was carried in an edition of The Engineer magazine dated 11th November 1960. It was inviting architects and engineers to get in touch with the company if considering overhead cranes in new buildings.

John Smith (Keighley) Ltd. was originally established in 1866, operating from a small millwright’s shop and manufacturing woodworking and stone-making machinery. The firm was founded by John Smith then run by his son Frank and then grandson George Albert Smith for around forty years. The firm became a private limited company in 1900, had moved into new works and started to focus on the design and manufacture of cranes (both derrick and overhead travelling cranes). During the Second World War, Smiths of Keighley were the sole manufacturers of specially designed cranes used to construct Bailey bridges, used by British and Allied Forces to advance troops and tanks.

In 1944 the company was acquired by Thos. W. Ward Ltd. of Sheffield but continued to operate as John Smith (Keighley) Ltd. Expansion of the Crane Works off Bradford Road in Stockbridge, Keighley, continued and by the 1960s the site covered nearly five acres. The range of cranes manufactured under the name John Smith Cranes stretched from small derricks to overhead cranes with a span of up to 120 feet, capable of lifting up to 150 tons. John Smith’s Electric Overhead Travelling Cranes were to be found in all the major industries including steelworks, power stations and atomic energy projects around the UK. There were clients around the world including those in Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.

They continued to trade throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, adding John Smith Micromotive (remote radio control technology for overhead cranes). The company downsized in the late 1980s and relocated to Worth Way in Keighley. The Crane Works site was demolished in the late 1980s and is now occupied by the Alston Retail Park (with B&Q). Parent company Thos. W. Ward Ltd. went into administration in 1992 and John Smith (Keighley) Ltd. closed in Keighley in 1995.

Researched by Tim Neal. The advert was donated by Tim in 2020. The background photograph of a 75 ton John Smith crane installed in a Power Station Turbine House and the colour logo are from a brochure celebrating the centenary of John Smith (Keighley) Ltd., donated by Arthur Woollacott.