Joseph Chattwood

• Born: 12 December 1820
• Christened: 25 February 1821 at Edenfield Parish Church
• Married: 7 December 1855 Mary Hargreaves and had 6 children
• Died: 18 November 1875 Southport
• Buried: Prestwich Parish Church (St Mary) Wednesday 24 November 1875

Joseph Chattwood was born in Edenfield, Lancashire, the youngest son of Edward and Hannah Chattwood on 12 December 1820 and was christened in Edenfield Parish Church on the 25th of February 1821. His father was a wheelwright in the village. Although educational facilities were few, Joseph Chattwood could read the New Testament "fairly" by the age of eight, and for the next two years he attended the National School, leaving at ten. For several years he assisted his father in the workshop and eventually joined his eldest brother, Samuel, who had taken over the business of blacksmith and wheelwright of Mr James Livesey in Heap Bridge, Bury. Throughout this period he spent his spare time gaining an education, and subsequently obtained a post as a teacher at Greenbooth a sparsely populated district near Rochdale, where his largest number of pupils was only 60.

After a little over 12 months  he left the school and started to lecture on Natural Philosophy in various towns in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire. After lecturing for some time Joseph returned to teaching, as an assistant master at a large school at Crowle in Lincolnshire, a post he held until 1844 when he met a Mr Hull, architect, from Northampton and Joseph joined him as assistant until towards the end of 1846. He then returned to Bury where joined the surveying staff of the newly opened East Lancashire Railway. In 1849 when he set up in Union Square, Bury, as an Architect, Civil Engineer and Building and Land Surveyor on his own account. By 1871 he had taken Joseph Stell Clifton into partnership and opened a Manchester office.

Joseph Chattwood was a founding member and first President of Manchester Literary Club, founded in 1862. He held this position until 1873 when his health (he had been subject to rheumatism for a long time) and professional work made it impossible to continue.A friend of Edwin Waugh the Lancashire poet, he presided at the Athenaeum on at least two occasions when Waugh visited the town in 1863 and March 1865 when he appeared with Ben Brierley. Chattwood persuaded Waugh to spend some time at Fo' Edge Farm on Scout Moor above Edenfield to avoid excessive bouts of drinking and here he produced some of his best work. Chattwood was also instrumental in the building of the first Waugh’s Well, a stone monument with a bronze likeness on the moors near the farm.

On the 7 November 1855 by special license, at the Register office, Haslingden, Joseph Chattwood, architect and surveyor, Union Square, Bury, married Miss Mary Hargreaves, eldest daughter of John Hargreaves, Esq., cotton manufacturer, Rawtenstall.[Bury Times 10 November 1855 page 4]. The couple had at least six children.

Joseph Chattwood of Park Bank, Higher Broughton, died on 18 November 1875 at Southport and was buried at Prestwich Parish Church (St Mary) on Wednesday 24 November 1875.

Death Notice: Manchester Guardian Monday 22 November 1875 Page 3 Col 4 (Deaths)
Obituary: Bury Times 19 November 1875

 Address
1853: Joseph Chatwood, architect 24 Union Square Bury (Whellan Page 994)
1863: Joseph Chattwood. 6 Union Square Bury
1871: Chatwood & Clifton architects surveyors and valuers  20 Brazennose Street, Manchester
1876: Chatwood and Clifton, architects surveyors and valuers,Hanover Chambers 8, King Street, Manchester (Slater)
1876: Chattwood and Hargreaves, architects civil engineers valuer 8 King Street, Manchester

Residence
1869: Belle Vue Terrace, Bury
1871: Park Bank Great Clowes Street Broughton (Census)
1876: Joseph Chattwood, architect, Park Bank 315 Great Clowes Street, Broughton (Slater)