Joseph Bramah Cochrane

Joseph Bramah Cochrane (1840-1908)

of Woodside Iron Works, Dudley

1840 Born son of Alexander Brodie Cochrane

1875 With his brother Charles he took charge of the partnership of Cochrane and Co at Woodside Ironworks.

1881 Joseph B. Cochrane 41, Iron & Coal Master, widower, Alice B. Cochrane 11, Margaret Cochrane 10, Alfred O. Cochrane 30, ironmaster, widower, Alfred C. Cochrane 4, Muriel W. Cochrane 3

1898 became sole head of the firm on his brother, Charles', death

1869 Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

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1909 Obituary

JOSEPH BRAMAH COCHRANE was born at Stourbridge on 16th March 1840, being a son of Mr. Alexander Brodie Cochrane, the principal proprietor of the Woodside Iron Works, near Dudley.

On his father's death in 1863 he became joint owner of these works with his brothers, as well as of their New Brancepeth collieries in Co. Durham, and the Ormesby Iron Works, Middlesbrough.

On the death of his eldest brother Charles, became the head of the firm, and under his management the concern, the chief business of which is the manufacture of pig-iron and pipes for water and gas, has been greatly developed. The firm have also for many years worked a large area of mines at Woodside.

Among the large structures emanating from the Woodside Iron Works during his association therewith may be mentioned in London the Holborn Viaduct, Westminster Bridge, Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Station, and Charing Cross Railway Bridge and Station, also 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.

He became a Member of this Institution in 1869.

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