John Birchenough

Alderman John Birchenough JP (November 1, 1825 - May 7, 1895) was a prominent local politician and silk manufacturer in Macclesfield, Cheshire in the nineteenth century. Birchenough was the head of the Macclesfield Silk manufacturing firm Birchenough and Sons with mills at Park Lane, Prestbury Road and Henderson Street in Macclesfield. He was a Wesleyan Methodist and was a prolific supporter of local charities in Macclesfield. Birchenough was a member of the Macclesfield Town Council for nearly forty years during a time of great transformation for the town when many public works – such as the waterworks, the cemetery, enlargement of the Town Hall, extensions at the gasworks, and the transformation of the muddy streets into cleanly paved, and hard macadamized roads – were carried out.

Birchenough was a Liberal Unionist and served as Mayor of Macclesfield Town in 1875-76. His portrait hangs in Macclesfield old Town Hall.

Birchenough started his career working with his elder brother Thomas Birchenough in the 1840s at Henderson Street Mill. Several years later he joining John Taylor, (the father of his wife,) in the business carried on at the Prestbury road Mills which became known as Taylor and Birchenough. When Taylor died, Birchenough retained the business and traded in his own name.

The next stage in his business career was the purchase of the Chester-road Mills, from the Manchester silk firm of Taylor, Harrop, and Pearce and the construction of a large shed to house power looms.During this period Mr. Birchenough also had a silk throwster business in partnership with Joseph Arnold, which they carried out at the Prestbury road mills. After his partner’s death Birchenough kept the business.

In the 1870s Birchenough purchased the extensive Park lane mills from Henry Wardle. At this time the Chester-road mill and the Prestbury-road mill were both being worked by Mr. Birchenough. About fifteen years before his death he took his sons into partnership, and the firm became to the world as that of John Birchenough & Sons.

In her book "Three Visits to America" the English women's rights activist Emily Faithfull writes the following about Birchenough's mills:

"No one could desire to see women looking more healthy than the operatives in some of our factories in Manchester, Bradford, and, Halifax. I shall long remember going through Messrs.Birchenough's silk mills at Macclesfield.Certainly the occasion was an exceptional one.The eldest son had been married the day before, and the entire place had been decorated by the operatives to commemorate the event.The walls were adorned by appropriate mottoes, even unique representations of the bridal ceremony had been devised,and everything betokened the happy understanding existing there between labor and capital."

Emily Faithfull was the witness at the wedding of John Birchenough's eldest son William Taylor Birchenough who had just married Jane Peacock daughter of Richard Peacock and knew both families, dedicating the same book to her "Friend Richard Peacock Esq of Gorton Hall" in 1882.

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