Sir William Henry Houldsworth, 1st Baronet (20 August 1834 – 18 April 1917) was a British mill-owner in
Reddish
Reddish is an area in Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 Census, the population was 28,052. Historically part of Lancashire, Reddish grew rapidly in the Industrial ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. He was
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP for
Manchester North West from 1883 to 1906, and sometime chairman of the Fine Cotton Spinners' Association. He was made a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
in 1887.
Life
William Henry Houldsworth was born on the 20th of August 1834, as the 4th and youngest son of Henry Houldworth (1797-1868) and Helen Hamilton. Houldworth's mother died while he was very young; while her exact date of death is unknown, his father remarried in 1838. Houldsworth bought farmland by the
Stockport Branch Canal
The Stockport Branch Canal was a 5-mile (8 km) branch of the Ashton Canal from Clayton, Manchester, Clayton to Stockport.
Route
The canal left the main line of the Ashton Canal at Stockport Junction (otherwise Clayton Junction), between lo ...
in Reddish in the 1860s and built
Reddish Mill, then the largest cotton-spinning mill in the world (started 1863, completed 1865). Four members of the Houldsworth family were 60% shareholders in the Reddish Spinning Company Limited which built the North Mill (started 1870) and the Middle Mill (started 1874). An Institute (now Houldsworth working men's club) was completed in 1874. All the above were designed by the architect
Abraham Stott
The Stotts were a family of architects from Oldham, North West England, of Scottish descent who specialised in the design of cotton mills. James Stott was the father, Joseph and his elder brother Abraham Stott had rival practices, and in later y ...
. Houldsworth commissioned the architect
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...
to design
St. Elisabeth's church, rectory and school. All the above buildings are still standing.
The start of a
model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...
was also laid out,
Houldsworth Model Village
Houldsworth Model Village was a model village situated in the centre of Reddish, 3 miles north of Stockport in the North of England. It was built by William Houldsworth, for the benefit of his employees at Houldsworth Mills.
The first of Houldswo ...
, with a variety of houses built in front of the mill. Some of the houses have been demolished, but those in Houldsworth Street and Liverpool Street remain.
He was created a baronet in 1887 as
Sir William Henry Houldsworth, of
Reddish
Reddish is an area in Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 Census, the population was 28,052. Historically part of Lancashire, Reddish grew rapidly in the Industrial ...
, in the Parish of
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, in the
County Palatine of Lancaster
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...
, and of
Coodham in the Parish of
Symington in the
County of Ayr
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of R ...
.
The City of Manchester made him a freeman in 1905, and the
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...
awarded him an honorary LLD. In later life, Houldsworth moved away from Reddish and Manchester, and concentrated on his estate, Coodham, Ayrshire in Scotland, where he built a domestic chapel designed by Alfred Waterhouse
Legacy
Several features in Reddish are named after Houldsworth. A drinking fountain and four-faced clock, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled in Houldsworth Square on 11 September 1920.
The oldest block of
Hulme Hall, Manchester
Hulme Hall is a University of Manchester hall of residence situated at the Victoria Park Campus in Rusholme, Manchester, housing 300 students. It has a range of facilities including the John Hartshorne Centre: a 300 seat lecture theatre with ...
a hall of residence for the
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
which was largely funded in its infancy during the 1870s by Houldsworth, is named after him.
Family
Houldsworth married Elisabeth Graham Crum, daughter of
Walter Crum
Walter Crum FRS (1796–1867) was a Scottish chemist and businessman. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1844.
Life
He was born in Glasgow, the second son of Alexander Crum of Thornliebank, a merchant there, and of Jane, the eldest da ...
.
References
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Notes
External links
Th
aerial view at spinningthewebshows Houldsworth's mill (to the left of the road running vertically), the canal (running horizontally) and the housing (in front of the mill). St Elisabeth's church with its tower is at the top of the picture (above the mill). The school is to the left of the church and the WMC is the large building to the right of the church. One of Reddish Spinning Co Ltd's mills is at the top-left of the picture. The mill to the right is Broadstone mill; the right-hand half of the structure, both chimneys and the engine house (at the centre) have been demolished.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houldsworth, William Henry
English industrialists
British textile industry businesspeople
Deputy Lieutenants of Ayrshire
Directors of the London and North Western Railway
1834 births
1917 deaths
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1880–1885
UK MPs 1885–1886
UK MPs 1886–1892
UK MPs 1892–1895
UK MPs 1895–1900
UK MPs 1900–1906
People from Ardwick
People from Reddish
Houldsworth, William Henry, 1st Baronet
Cotton industry in England
19th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English businesspeople
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Manchester
Hulme Trust