Full description

## 1931-3

William Cochran Carr was born c1867, the son of William Cochran Carr (1815-89) who owned the South Benwell Brickworks and Benwell Colliery and had an interest in the Elswick Coal Company. On his death the businesses transferred to his widow until 1905 when William Cochran Carr Ltd was formed and his son became head of the firm.

Following a financial crisis in 1934 there was a restructuring and the launch of a new company – William Cochran-Carr (1934) Ltd, concentrating on brick and tile manufacture at the Fenham Brick and Tile Works, Newcastle. Benwell Colliery closed in 1939 and Elswick Coal Co Ltd went into receivership in 1940.

William Cochran Carr was President of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers between 1931 and 1933.

He originally held the collection of T. H. Hair’s watercolours of coal mines, prior to passing it to the Department of Mining Engineering, Armstrong College. It was from here the collection passed to the Hatton Gallery at the University of Newcastle in the 1990s.

Cochran Carr contributed to many papers in the Transactions, for example:
Vol 91, p83 ‘Accidents Risks and Repairs’
Vol 93, p375 ‘Air-raid precautions at collieries’
Vol 77, p315 ‘Burnt Outcrops at Newcastle-upon-Tyne’
Vol 82, p528 ‘Early steam engines in North of England’