For over 35 years, Cochranes of Oxford has been helping people to understand and enjoy our world through unique experiential teaching products and original kite designs for fun and specialist uses.

Education
Cochranes of Oxford works with schools and universities to design and develop unique educational products. Ideas from teachers are welcomed and where possible made real by the company.

The products cover pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education and focus on kits and equipment that help students learn through hands-on experience and demonstration in science, maths, design and construction. We make our products widely available through our international distribution network of school supply and laboratory catalogues, as well as directly to you via telephone and on-line.

Enjoyment
Don Dunford MBE came to Cochranes to produce the Dunford Flying Machine, the world's first two-line stunt-kite. The range grew with more original Dunford designs. A more recent addition to the range came from Kenneth Sams, inventor of the UFO SAM spinning kite -see it to believe it!

BirdScaring
Birds eat over 25% of the world's crops, so keeping the birds at bay is an important task. With our leading edge design in kites and the assistance of experts at Reading University, Cochranes developed hawk-mimic kites that hovered in the sky for longer and scared birds off crops for longer even in severe winter conditions. Our business is based in rural West Oxfordshire and we have a testing-ground where our kites fly for weeks on end.

Specialist and Custom Products
Your requirements are often unique, or you require labelling or customisation of the product. So, over the years we have also developed and produced a wide range of special products for individual customers from specialist laboratory equipment to unusual flying toys and super-sized DNA models.

If you have an idea you want made real, do contact us, however, please realise that we cannot take forward all requests!

Founded by Ralph Cochrane, in 1962, the business is now in its third generation. Working from the Cotswolds, near Oxford in England, the business is family run, providing useful employment for local people.