CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > November 2021 19 GUEST ARTICLE: 1 Following an interesting discovery in an overgrown West Yorkshire graveyard, Nick Johnson recalls the history of a former UK crane and excavator maker. At first sight it might appear that the recent unearthing of a Smith family tomb within the Farsley Rehoboth Burial Ground near Pudsey in West Yorkshire would have little relevance to readers of the CPA Bulletin. After all Smith is a very common surname but this tomb is the last resting place of one David Smith who was a founder of a previously prominent crane and excavator maker in the UK. It was back in 1820 when David Smith, together with Jeremiah Balmforth and Jeremiah Booth set up a firm of millwrights in the village of Rodley near Leeds. Early products included stone cutting machinery and winches and this led to the manufacture of hand- operated cranes. David Smith died in 1859 and his son Thomas carried on the business. A year later the company introduced its first steam crane. These machines, usually mounted on rail travel chassis, become increasingly popular for use on civil engineering projects including, during the late 1880s, the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. Thomas’s three sons subsequently joined the business that became registered as Thomas Smith & Sons (Rodley) Ltd in 1918. The company’s range of crawler mounted, rope operated universal excavators were first introduced in 1930. One preserved rail mounted Smith steam crane from the 1930s is the 5 ton capacity machine at Amberley Museum near Arundel in West Sussex. Built in 1937, this machine spent the latter part of its Smiths Remembered After Tomb Find