Name

William Waddington

Designation
Architect
Born
1816
Place of Birth
Padiham
Location
Burnley
Died
1891

Birth date    13 May 1816, Padiham
Death date    25 March 1891, Burnley

William Waddington was born in Padiham, Lancashire, on 13 May 1816, the son of William and Martha Waddington. His father was a timber merchant in the town, and initially William junior and his brother John worked for him. By the time of the 1851 census, William senior had retired, John was running the business and William junior had set himself up as an architect. No record of any formal training has been found, and it is assumed he developed his skills from his father, who sometimes described himself as a joiner and a wright. Although he had been baptised into the Church of England, William was educated at the Wesleyan Methodist school in St. Giles Street, Padiham.  His first known commission was in 1840 for a Wesleyan school, situated off North Street in Padiham. This was the first of a large number of commissions for that denomination, but one of his largest projects was the rebuilding of Padiham parish church, St Leonard’s, from 1866 to 1869.

In 1864, he opened an office on Grimshaw Street in Burnley, and his son William Angelo joined him as an assistant, becoming a partner in 1877. The firm operated as William Waddington and Son, and they designed many important buildings in the town. In the 1880s, their commissions started to come from a wider area in the North West, and in about 1881, they opened another office at 25 Cross Street in Manchester. In addition to his professional work, William was senior superintendent at the Wesleyan Red Lion Street Sunday School in Burnley and a founder member of Burnley Literary and Scientific Club. He died on 25 March 1891 aged 74. [Richard Fletcher]

Address
1866    William Waddington, 51, Market Street, Burnley
1871    William Waddington, 5 Grimshaw Street, Burnley
1881    25 Cross Street, Manchester (branch office)

Residence
1851    Gawthorpe Street, Padiham
1871    Osborne Terrace, Padiham (built by himself)
1881    Thorn Hill, Burnley
1891    Thorn Hill, Burnley

Obituary        Burnley Gazette 28 March 1891 page 7
Obituary        Blackburn Standard 28 March 1891 page 6]
Obituary        Manchester Courier 28 March 1891 page 13]
Obituary        Burnley Express 28 March 1891 page 5
Obituary        Burnley Gazette28 March 1891 page 5

Reference    Molly Haines, Waddington & Son: A Local Architectural Practice, article in Lancashire Local Historian, no 19 (2006)

Partnerships

Name Designation Formed Dissolved Location
Waddington William and Son (I) Architectural practice 1877 1891 Burnley and Manchester