Joseph Stott

• Birth date            25 October 1836
• Death date          21 January 1894
• Interment           25 January 1894 Greenacres Cemetery Oldham.

Joseph Stott was the younger brother and rival of A H. Stott, with whom he worked prior to setting up his own practice at 26 Clegg Street Oldham around 1868. His first cotton mill design was the Gresham in 1862 and he designed 20-30 mills between 1884 and 1887 including 11 in Oldham. In addition he designed a number of extensions to existing mills.

He was born on 25 October 1836 in Oldham, the son of James Stott and Mary Henthorn. Joseph had one elder brother, Abraham Henthorn Stott, three elder sisters Sarah, Ann and Alice (all born in Crompton), and one younger brother, James, born in 1845. By 1851 the family were living in Chapel Street, Oldham. On the census of that year both Joseph and his father were listed as stonemasons while Abraham Henthorn Stott was already listed as an architect. Joseph entered his brother’s office shortly thereafter.  While Joseph was working for Abraham, the firm devised a new method of mill construction - the double brick arch system, first used about 1865 and patented in 1871. Joseph claimed joint authorship, a fact disputed by A H Stott and Sons who stated that Joseph had merely helped in the preparation of the drawings.  However, Joseph continued to maintain his joint authorship. When he died in 1894 no members of Abraham's family attended the funeral, suggesting that the rift was never healed.

About 1868 Joseph left to set up his own practice where he had to seek a variation of the double brick arch system which copied the system as closely as possible without infringing the patent. He used his method in 1884 for the mill of the Rochdale Cotton Spinning Company. On 14 June, the Oldham Chronicle observed that the arrangement of rolled iron girders with brick arches of 5' 3" was introduced by Joseph about ten years previously. A response followed from Abraham's firm (Stott and Sons) on 21 June, pointing out that A H Stott had invented the system and that it had been patented in 1871. Joseph had merely helped in the preparation of drawings. Stott and Sons claimed that Joseph's method was not an infringement as such, and it had its disadvantages, in particular a loss of window height.

Joseph's interests in the mills extended beyond their design. He was actively involved with the finance and promotion of limited liability cotton spinning companies, and was on the boards of several spinning companies. He caused a scandal in 1890 when he became a director of the Pine Spinning Company Ltd whilst he was employed as their architect. Joseph also patented an improved transmission mechanism for the triple-expansion engine, and in 1889 pioneered the introduction into Lancashire of the triple expansion engine, at the weaving shed of the Platt Lane Manufacturing Company at Hindley, near Wigan. Although predominantly a mill architect, he also worked on other buildings such as the Chamber Street Mission Hall, Oldham in the 1870s, the bobbin works at Beevor Mills, Barnsley in 1887, and a dray shed for Oldham Brewery in 1889.

Joseph Stott died aged 57 of bronchitis and influenza at his residence in Queen's Road on 21 January 1894, leaving a widow, two daughters and a son, George. The Oldham Chronicle of Monday 22 January commented that outside his architectural practice Joseph "led a quiet life". He was buried at Greenacres Cemetery on 25 January 1894.

Address
1868        26 Clegg Street Oldham

Residence
1894        Joseph Stott “Ellerslie” Queen’s Road Oldham

Obituary        Oldham Chronicle 22 January 1894
Obituary        Builder 10 February 1894 page 121
Funeral          Oldham Evening Chronicle 26 January 1894 page 3 col 4
Reference      British Architect 2 February 1894 Page 74 (death noted but no obit)