George Edward Bolshaw

• Birth date            26 March 1863 at Crewe
• Marriage              July-September 1891 to Margaret Alice Ormerod at Ormskirk district
• Death date          30 July 1938 Southport
• Burial                  Liverpool Road Cemetery, Birkdale Southport

George Edward Bolshaw was born at Crewe on 26 March 1863, the eldest son of George Bolshaw, butcher, and his wife Ann. He was educated at Ashville College, Harrogate before training as an architect.  G E Bolshaw commenced practice on his own account in 1884 at Crewe and in 1885 he joined Samuel Hurst in partnership at Southport, Hurst having previously been in partnership with Maxwell and Tuke as Maxwell Tuke and Hurst in that town. The partnership with Hurst was dissolved in July 1889 shortly before Samuel Hurst’s bankruptcy and suicide. G E Bolshaw practiced in Southport for the rest of his career while also maintaining an office in Crewe for several years. He was briefly in partnership with Henry J. Stevens* as G. E. Bolshaw and H. J. Stevens, with an office at 1 Princes Street, Harrogate. The partnership carried out few commissions and was dissolved in December 1906. 

Bolshaw designed and superintended the erection of numerous chapels, schools, isolation hospitals, commercial buildings, etc., mostly in the north of England, securing several commissions in open competition. Perhaps his greatest work was the Leyland Arcade, Southport, which comprised forty-five shops, with other premises, and at the time was considered one of the finest arcades in Europe. He was a Fellow of the Manchester Society of Architects but never sought membership of the RIBA. He married Margaret Alice Ormrod in 1891 and had one daughter. In August 1936 he travelled to South Africa.

George Edward Bolshaw died on 30 July 1938 Southport and was interred at Liverpool Road Cemetery, Birkdale Southport.

Address
1889        Hurst and Bolshaw 175 Lord Street Southport
1898        George E Bolshaw FMSA 189 Lord Street Southport
1903        George E Bolshaw FMSA 189 Lord Street Southport
1913        G E Bolshaw 2 Mill Street Crewe
1913        G E Bolshaw Westminster Chambers,106 Lord Street Southport
1914        G E Bolshaw 106 Lord Street Southport
1924        G E Bolshaw 8-9 Westminster Chambers,106 Lord Street Southport
1934        G E Bolshaw 106 Lord Street Southport

Residence
1881-1891    Underwood Villa, West Street, Crewe
1901        73 Hampton Road, North Meols
1938        Clairville Mansions, Gloucester Road, Birkdale, Southport (Probate)

Reference    The London Gazette, July 26, 1889. Page 4029
Reference    Pike Contemporary Biographies page 205 with photograph
Reference    Building News 4 January 1907 page 12
Obituary      Builder 12 August 1938 Page 305

·         Henry J Stevens was born in Northwich in 1871 and in 1901 was living at Low Harrogate. In the census he is described as an Architects Assistant in the census return. In 1911 he is resident in Birkdale, Southport, his occupation that of Architectural Assistant. The nature of the partnership with G E Bolshaw is unclear and almost certainly applied to the Harrogate office only.