In 1826. Edward and Stephen Sheldon established a foundry at Coseley for the manufacture of cast iron pots and pans, although an account book of 1820-24 for Smith, Sheldon & Co in the possession of Cannon Industries Ltd indicates that there was an earlier business partnership, The original site, on an estate known as The Dowry, was ideally placed for such production, as it abutted a branch of the Birmingham Canal and adjacent collieries provided fuel for the foundry. In 1838, the opening of the Coseley Tunnel further improved the site's transport links by reducing the length of the original canal route to Birmingham. This encouraged expansion of the Sheldons' enterprise at The Dowry and on to adjacent land. By 1926, the Cannon Foundry site covered 26 acres.

After Edward Sheldon's death in 1853, the business was carried on by his sons-in-law, william Barnett and John Hawthorne. The company continued in family ownership through their sons, Edward Sheldon Barnett and William Henry Hawthorne. and through Richard Clayton. a solicitor. who married William and Catherine Barnett's daughter Panny Eliza in 1874,

In 1884. the business. which had been trading as E Sheldon & Co, was incorporated as a limited company and its name changed to the Cannon Hollow-ware Co Ltd. The shares were held only by the earlier partners, who were all family members. A further change occurred in 1900, when the firm became known as The Cannon Iron Foundries Ltd, to reflect the wider range of its business.

From the 1880s, the pace of Cannon's development gathered momentum. A series of patents taken out in the 1880s and 1890s testifies to the company's development of its original trade in cooking utensils. The period from 1890 to 1914, however, saw a great expansion in the range of its products. Gas cookers and stoves increasingly formed a major part of its output, followed by gas fires and meters. The company also manufactured household and builders’ ironmongery, grindstones and sanitary ware including baths, basins and lavatories using the porceliron technique which simulated the finish of glazed pottery ware. After the First World War, Cannon also becase an important manufacturer of plant for chemical works. Further information on the history of the firm during this period can be found in the Black Country Society's occasional publication The Cannon Iron Foundry Coseley 1826-1926.

Cannon Industries Ltd is now a subsidiary of Cannon (Holdings) Ltd, which is itself controlled by GEC. The records listed below were inspected on 25 April 1991 by kind permission of Mr AC Pritchard, Personnel and Administration Manager.

Extracted from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/lists/GB-0145-Acc8941.htm#Introduction