William Crumblehulme
William Crumblehulme (1831-1910) of W. Crumblehulme and Sons
1831 William Crumblehulme was born into a poor family who lived in the Folds Road area, Little Bolton.
1836 His father died of cholera when he was five, and his mother re-married. William learnt to read and write, first at the Sunday School and later furthering his education at the Mechanics Institute, until in 1851 at the age of twenty he was able to leave the mill to find work as a timekeeper at a foundry in Gas Street, Great Bolton.
1863 William had become unemployed through the effect of the American Civil War on trade in Bolton. He found work through his connection with a fellow member of the Temperance Society, John Hiton. He was employed as a cashier/travelling salesman for Messrs. Hiton and Brown, a small foundry, employing twelve men and eight boys.
Formed Crumblehulme and Edge in Manchester
1879 Returned to Bolton to take over the Hiton and Brown foundry, forming the business which became W. Crumblehulme and Sons
1910 Died. His coffin was brought by train from Southport to Bolton; and was carried from the platform to the hearse by five foundrymen who had been with the firm since its foundation. The funeral cortege went past the foundry, where all the men stood outside to pay their last respects, then went on to Heaton cemetery for his interment in the family vault.