Can anyone tell me where Cravenswaggon work in Darnall used to be and also where the Neepsend coach builders Factory, where was that.

Ive seen the names of these two companies mentioned in books time and time again and have been wondering for ages about them.

Thanks.....hj

The coach builders you were probably on about were Shefflex the mainly did bodywork for the old Sheffield corporation refuse wagons. They do Very little of that now and are Club Mill Road.

Craven's Darnall works.
Take a look at the map below. The site of the works is where the arrow is. There's still the boundary wall along Staniforth Road, though when I drove past last week they might have been demolishing it.
I had a uncle work here for many years building and repairing rail carriages, he would later die from asbestosis, asbestos was used for insulation in the carriage's I believe.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=438802&y=387927&z=1&sv=438750,387750&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

The whole site on Staniforth Road is now being demolished as we speak.

Cravens were a huge operation in their day, specialising in building railway carriages, interestingly, durind the war, they made the wings for "Horsa" troop carrying gliders, and components for Lancaster bombers. A special section of the firm was prepared to make large quantities of Rolls Royce Merlin engine exhaust manifolds, in addition, the firm made gun shields, gun mountings, gun turrets, ammunition racks, ammunition boxes, and thousands of stampings and component parts for armoured vehicles.

There was a Neepsend Coachworks on Penistone Road in the 1960s. This was a subsidiary of East Lancashire Coachbuilders of Blackburn. They constructed bodies for some Leyland Atlantean vehicles, but didn't manufacture for long. The factory was on the right as you travel from the city, just before the River Loxley bridge. I think the building is still in use by another engineering company. I will have a look sometime.

Cravens built bodies for trams, buses as well as their main business, railway carriages.

Sheffield Corporation Tramways had a large number of Cravens built trams at one time, the earliest being constructed in 1902 and the last one, numbered 1 was built in 1927. Also buses were built for Sheffield Corporation between 1993 and 1950 with a solitary mini-bus in 1966. Other corporations and private concerns had vehicles from this famous company.

Information on both these outfits would be useful, if anybody can expand on this offering.

Thanks for the replies.

I was driving along Staniforth last week and wondered if that wall was part of Cravens.

Have always been interested in old transport, Trams and Busses and feel its a shame that such an important part of local and national history is been knocked down as we speek.

Desey. The Shefflex company. Does that name now belong to Towsure up at Malin Bridge? Though I saw it on one of their vans a while back.

Yes they started making tow bars for them as Shefflex but then Towsure bought it back after selling that side of the business to Shefflex some time earlier.

Cravens was at the top of Acres hill Road .The works could be seen very clearly from the railway bridge up there.

Cravens became Craven Tasker, then Task trailers which was eventually bought by Montracon, they now manufacture trailers for road transport at Doncaster.

I'm looking for information on Portuguese "Estoril Society" Cravens , built around 1948. If some one could help me i'd be grateful.


thanks