James Caldwell Prestwich

James Caldwell Prestwich

James Caldwell Prestwich (1852–1940) was an English architect.

Background

Prestwich was born in Atherton, Lancashire, and educated at Leigh and Nantwich Grammar Schools.[1]

Career

Prestwich trained to be an architect in London and returned to Leigh in 1875 to start an architectural practice which he worked in until 1930 and which was continued by his son. He produced many buildings in Leigh and Nicholas Pevsner remarked that "Any building of any merit (in Leigh) which is not a church or a mill is almost certainly by the local firm of J.C. Prestwich & Sons, capable – sometimes very capable – in a number of styles."[2] J. C. Prestwich & Sons included Prestwich and two of his sons: Harold Oswald Prestwich and Ernest Prestwich.[3]

Works

The old Leigh Technical College in redbrick designed by J. C. Prestwich

Several of Prestwich's buildings survive including the Central Buildings on Bradshawgate which were built for the Leigh Friendly Co-operative Society, Leigh Cenotaph,[4] Leigh Technical School and Library on Railway Road, Leigh Town Hall, Leigh Infirmary, and numerous shops, public houses, business premises, and houses in Pennington. Other buildings have been demolished including Leigh Public Baths and Leigh Union workhouse hospital. Prestwich designed other public buildings including Tyldesley Library and Atherton Town Hall. Further afield, he designed public baths in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Northampton, and Stockport, as well as schools in Atherton, Southport, Birkdale, and Hindley.[1][5]

Institutions

Prestwich was a fellow of the Manchester Society of Architects and practised until 1930. His son Harold joined the practice in 1908.[6]

References

Notes

1. Tracy, William Burnett (1901). Pike, W. T. (ed.). Manchester and Salford at the Close of the Nineteenth Century. Vol. 2. Brighton, Sussex: W. T. Pike & Co. p. 218.
2. Pollard, Pevsner & Sharples 2006, p. 228
3. Darlington, Neil (2024). "James Caldwell Prestwich". manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk. Architects of Greater Manchester. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
4. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1068457)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
5. Leigh Town Trail Part 1 (PDF), Wigan Council, 2000, p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2011
6. Brodie 2001, p. 408

Bibliography

• Brodie, Antonia (2001), Directory of British Architects 1834–1914: L–Z, Continuum International Publishing Group
• Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Sharples, Joseph (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-10910-8

External links

• Media related to James Caldwell Prestwich at Wikimedia Commons