Edward Pilkington

Chairman of Kearsley Local Board: 1870-71, 1881-82

Born: February 1843

Died: Macclesfield, Cheshire 1922

Educated: Private school, South of England

Son of Richard Pilkington of Windle Hall, St Helens, who, with his brother, founded the Pilkington Brothers glassworks in St Helens.

He studied mining engineering and was apprenticed to Woodhouse & Silcock, Derby, working mainly at Derby and Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

In 1867 his uncles, Joseph and Josiah Evans, his father Richard, a Dr Grimke, his brother Alfred and himself, leased the collieries at Clifton and Kearsley owned by Mrs C A Stapleton Cotton. The firm was known as the Clifton & Kearsley Coal Company and he and his brother Alfred Pilkington became the resident managing proprietors, employing two thousand people at seven collieries.

He was elected to the Local Board in 1867.

Member of the Streets and Lighting and Sanitary Committees. In 1874 he proposed repairs to Slackey Brow and later to Tasker's Lane.

Chairman of the South Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners Association.

Member of the Barton Board of Guardians and Chairman of the Barton Rural Sanitary Authority.

Lived at Clifton Hall, Clifton.