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John Hutchinson 1825-1865
A Young Man from St. Helens.
D. W. F. HARDIE.
West Bank & Spike Island, 1847.
John Hutchinson, who established his Leblanc soda factory on the east bank of the extended Sankey Navigation Canal in 1847, was the principal founder of the chemical industry in Widnes. His foresight and enterprise in acquiring land in the neighbourhood made possible the rapid expansion of the industry after his death in 1865. By his provision of a dock and local railway system he founded one of the first industrial estates in England.
Appleton Lodge was John Hutchinson's home in Widnes from his marriage in 1850 until his death in 1865. His grave, by the wall of St. Bede's Church, is a very short distance away.
Hutchinson leased this mid-eighteenth-century house from John Smith, a local landowner whose son became the first Abbot of Ampleforth. Ten years after the alkali-maker's death his widow resigned her lease of the Lodge, and the mansion was for a time occupied by Major James Cross, who was then managing the Hutchinson factories and estate.
The Document from the St Helen's Canal & Railway Company to John Hutchinson, dated May 1850, leasing "A Piece of Land" from 31st March, 1849, at Widnes.
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