Wild Collins and Wild
John Wild set up his architectural practice at 15 Clegg Street, Oldham in 1856. The partnership comprised the founder, John Wild (1836-1901), Joe Collins (1848/9- 1929), his long serving assistant who joined the partnership in 1876 and Frederick Wild, his son, who was admitted about 1890. Following the death of John Wild in 1901, the practice was dissolved, with Fred Wild operating under his own name and Joe Collins moving to 7 Clegg Street.
John Wild designed fourteen cotton mills as well as a number of extensions in the period 1856-76. Wild & Collins designed five new mills and Wild Collins & Wild designed a further six mills. All the mills designed by this firm tended to be conservative in plan and they still employed single brick arch construction long after it had been abandoned by other architects