Joseph Booth & Bros

Joseph Booth & Bros was an English company notable for making cranes used in large construction projects.

Jeremiah Booth, the father of Joseph Booth, entered the crane making business with partners Jeremiah Balmforth and David Smith. They had established their business in the Calverley area of Leeds in 1820 and were joined by Jeremiah Booth in 1833. The company made machinery for mills and from 1840 their range included hand operated cranes. In 1847 Jeremiah Booth left and established his own crane making company at the 'Union Foundry' in Rodley, West Yorkshire. The works was situated on a narrow strip of land between Town Street and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. In 1855 the company passed to Jeremiah Booth's son Joseph and the name Joseph Booth & Bros was adopted. For most of the company's history it operated alongside the 'Old Foundry' of Thomas Smith & Sons, Thomas Smith being the son of the David Smith who had formerly been in partnership with Jeremiah Booth.

During the Victorian era a number of factors led to large demand for cranes, particularly the number of major construction projects being undertaken and the large volumes of goods to lift in factories, railways and canals.
Railways, docks, canals and construction sites used large numbers of small steam cranes, either mounted on quays or on railway wheels so they could be moved around site, usually four wheels but occasionally more for larger cranes. A number of local firms in Leeds produced quite similar designs with the jib and boiler counterbalanced around a tall column pivot. These very stable machines are often refared to as 'Leeds Type' cranes.

Significant construction sites to use Booths cranes include the Tower Bridge, as this had a great deal of metal framework many cranes were required in its construction. The steam cranes used in the Tower Bridge construction have been included in scenes from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. One less successful project to employ Booths cranes was the Wembley Park Tower project. The Wembley Park Tower was meant to be London's rival to the Eiffel Tower in Paris but was however dogged by financial problems. In 1902 the Railway Magazine commented "If the Wembley Tower Company could have raised the money as quickly as these cranes raised the girders, the growth of the tower would not have ceased so abruptly." A less glamorous project was the Northern Outfall Sewer in London however company advertising of the time mentioned that their cranes could be seen at work here.

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