George Heaton

• Birth date             7 February 1840 at Pemberton near Wigan
• Baptism                29 March 1840
• Marriage (1)          7th September 1862 to Jane Heaton at St John the Divine Pemberton
• Marriage (2)          14 July 1880 to Tabitha Holden at St Mary’s Widnes
• Death date             8 October 1910
• Burial                    Wigan Cemetery

 

 

George Heaton was born on 7 February 1840 at Pemberton, neat Wigan, the son of Samuel Heaton, a paviour, and his wife Elizabeth (Turton). Initially he found employment as an assistant Labourer and Brick Layer (1861 census).  He was later articled to Mr. J. L. Hunter, the Wigan Borough Surveyor, and he remained in the employment of the Wigan Corporation while such schemes as the Wigan Water Works and the Wigan Sewage Mains and outfall works were in hand, thus gaining valuable engineering experience. His abilities were noted by Sir Robert Rawlinson, a past president of the ICE who had charge of the Wigan Waterworks scheme. George Heaton afterwards spent a short period in the service of Sir Robert in London. It is stated on most reliable authority that at the time Sir Robert Rawlinson offered Mr. Heaton a highly lucrative and influential position in Egypt, but Mr Heaton preferred to come back and work in his native town of Commencing practice on his own account much of his early work was railway surveying, but he soon obtained commissions from the old Highway Boards and District Councils of the neighbourhood. By 1869 he was the surveyor for the Hindley Local Board and public works followed in the townships of Pemberton, Orrell, Aspull, Abram, Haigh and the districts comprised within the Wigan Union Rural Sanitary Authority.

 

In 1891 he took architect William Chasen Ralph (1848-1913) into partnership under the style Heaton and Ralph. By 1896 they had been joined by George’s eldest son, Frederick George Heaton, the practice henceforth being carried on under the name of Heaton Ralph and Heaton. During this period the number of architectural commissions obtained by the firm increased significantly. These included the Market Place Improvements; Cowling Buildings, Mesne Street; Makinson's Arcade; premises on Market Street; Boys Reading Room for Sir Francis Powell, Bart; Ashton Hospital; the fine District Council Offices and Public Hall at Ince; the new District Council Offices at Hindley (competition); the new Britannia Bridge Council Schools; and the new Wigan Workhouse Infirmary at Billinge.

 

George Heaton married twice. On 7 September 1862 he married Jane Heaton at the Church of St John the Divine, Pemberton. Jane died on 17 May 1879 aged 35. Following her death, he married Tabitha Holden at St Mary’s Church, Widnes on 14 July 1880. Census records indicate that he fathered 15 children. His gravestone in Ince Cemetery also records two children who died in infancy – Emily Annie, the daughter of George and Jane who died on 3 April 1875, aged 1 year, and William Horace, the son of George and Tabitha who died on 15 August 1887, aged 5 years.

 

On 8 October 1910 George Heaton died at his home, 54 Earl Street Wigan.  A funeral service at St Michael's Church was followed by interment in the family vault at Wigan Cemetery, Lower Ince.  By George’s death the partnership of Heaton Ralph and Heaton was ended. A Notice in the London Gazette of 13 January 1911 read:

NOTICE is hereby given, 'that the Partnership for many years subsisting between the late George Heaton and the undersigned, William Chasen Ralph and Frederick George Heaton, as Civil Engineers, Architects, Surveyors, and Valuers, under the style or firm of HEATON, RALPH AND HEATON, at Victoria Buildings, King-street, Wigan, was dissolved as to the said George Heaton by his death, on the eighth day of October, one thousand nine hundred and ten; and the business has since been continued by the undersigned, William Chasen Ralph and Frederick George Heaton; and notice is hereby further given, that the said business will be finally dissolved as from the thirty-first day of December instant. All debts due to the dissolved firm may be paid to the said William Chasen Ralph or to the said Frederick George Heaton. As witness our hands this 29th day of December,1910. W. CHASEN RALPH; FRED. G. HEATON; TABITHA HEATON, CHAS. H. HEATON,  ( Executors of the said George Heaton).

 

 

Both surviving partners chose not to continue the arrangement and commenced practice individually.

 

1884        Member of the Society of Architects, London (MSA Membership list 1896)
1884        Associate Member of The Institution pf Civil Engineers on the 8 January 1884

Obituary    Wigan Observer 11 October 1910 page 2
Obituary    1911 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries

Address
1869    George Heaton architect, surveyor, and insurance agent, 20 King Street; (Worrall Directory)
1871     George Heaton, land and building surveyor. 17 Clifton Street, Wigan
1881    George Heaton, architect, civil engineer, surveyor to Abram and Aspull, and engineer to the Orrell & Pemberton Local Boards, 14 King Street; Wigan (Worrall Directory)

Residence
1851    Goose Green Warrington Road, Pemberton, Wigan
1861    Warrington Road
1869    Clifton Street, Wigan
1881    100 Sussex Road   North Meols, (Census)
1891    Earl Street, Wigan
1910    54 Earl Street, Wigan (probate)