1957-1958, Fred Taylor, Mayor of Leigh

1957-1958, Fred Taylor, Mayor of Leigh

At his investiture as Leigh’s 46^th mayor, Fred Taylor outlined a plan that would enrich the lives of old people in the Borough.

A machinist at Sutcliffe and Speakman Engineering Company and a long-serving trade union official, Councillor Taylor had dedicated more than a decade of service to municipal life before becoming the town’s first citizen and had a clear idea of what he wanted to see achieved in his year of office and provision for old people was top of his agenda.

He wanted the council to consider more developments on the lines of Hourigan House. He wanted to see private flats built where adequate medical attention would be on hand as and when required, freeing up larger properties that would provide homes for younger families.

“I am convinced there would be a big demand for rented flats of this description and thereby make available family houses for the younger generation,” he said.

Born in Burnley, Fred Taylor was just four months old when his family came to live in Leigh. Educated at Windermere Road School, he started work at Mather Lane Mill but at the age of 14 left to join Sutcliffe and Speakman – a company that provided four Leigh mayors before Counc Taylor’s election. And it was while there that he joined the trade union movement.

During the Second World War he joined the National Fire Service and in 1945 he was appointed branch secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, of which he became member of the district executive committee. He was a delegate to the Leigh Trades and Labour Council and was secretary of the Leigh Owner Occupiers Association and later a member of that association’s national organisation.

In 1945 he was elected to the Council as a member for St Thomas’s Ward, only to lose his seat a year later. But within a month he was back on the Council, representing Etherstone Ward. He served on a variety of committees and at the time he became mayor he was chairman of the Cleansing Committee.

The husband of a Borough magistrate, Counc Taylor was a member of Leigh Baptist Church and on his election as mayor appointed as his chaplain his fellow councillor, Rev Reginald John King, the Minister of Leigh Baptist Church, who had been mayor in 1954-55.

It was said of Counc Taylor that he was a man of “serious nature” but behind the seriousness his contemporaries knew there was a “wealth of goodness”. Counc H Gough, who proposed his election, said every member and official of the Council had the utmost respect for him.

Written by Gordon Sharrock

References

Biographical cuttings – Fred Taylor, available at Leigh Local Studies.