Joseph Openshaw

Chairman of Kearsley Urban District Council: 1900-05 (Conservative)

Born: Kearsley c 1852

Died:  Rutland House, Ellesmere Park, Eccles, Lancashire 27 April 1919

Coal Merchant.

Began work as a railway clerk.

Son of John Openshaw, a tailor.

Represented East Ward. Magistrate.

Chairman during a very active period in the history of the UDC, which included the provision of the tramways and the necessary negotiations with Farnworth who ran the lines.

Representative on the Kearsley Area Sub-committee of the County Education Committee and for some years was also Chairman.

When he retired from Kearsley Council on his move to Eccles, Little Hulton Council selected him as one of their representatives on the Committee.

Wesleyan - He was one of the managers of the Ringley Wesleyan School. He was Chairman when the Ringley Wesleyan Day School was transferred to the County Committee and he tried unsuccessfully to have the new school erected in Kearsley, not Prestolee.