Friends of WOODBANK MEMORIAL PARK
Thomas Rowbotham
The surname Rowbotham (usually pronounced ‘Rowbottom’) is most commonly found in the region of Lancashire, although it does not appear in records prior to 1500. It is of local origin, that is, it belongs to the category of surnames derived from a particular geographical feature, either man made or natural, near which the original bearer once lived or held land. In this case, the name is derived from the Old English word "ruh" meaning "rough, overgrown" and "botm" meaning "bottom valley". However, it is also possible that this surname is toponymic in origin, indicating "one who came from Rowbotham", the name of a place which is today extinct, but which was most likely to have been situated in Lancashire. Variants of this surname include Rowbottom, Rowbottem, Rowbottam, Robatham, Robottom and Roebotham. This was never a numerous surname and early records are scarce. Today this surname is, in fact, more common in the U.S. than in its native England.
The Census 1861 entry records Thomas Rowbotham as living in Romiley at the age of 9, along with John Rowbotham, aged 69 (probably granddad), Arnold Rowbotham, aged 43, John Rowbotham, aged 36 and William Rowbotham (cousin), aged 11. How hard, if not sad, it must have been for the lads to manage without a single mum or wife.
The Census 1891 entry records Florence Rowbotham at the age of 15, having been born in Newton, Cheshire, in 1876, and living with father Thomas aged 39, and mother Eliza, aged 40.
Following the invention of the Rowbotham self-oiling wheel Thomas failed to obtain funding for its manufacture from the banks. Enterprising and determined as ever he obtained the help of a number of steel firms which enabled him to accept a ten-year contract for the supply of his wheels to a Rhonda Valley colliery on the basis of ‘no cure, no pay’. These terms turned out to be marvelous advertising and he quickly generated interested buyers.
Thomas Rowbotham’s civic wartime activities included ‘the provision of comforts for men serving overseas, and in the entertainment of wounded men attached to local hospitals.’ This entailed visits, sandwich teas, even story-telling. He took a special interest in the Shell Shock Hospital in Brinnington where he was a frequent visitor.
In 1916, the year Thomas Rowbotham was elected Mayor, Eliza Rowbotham died on the 21st December. His daughter, Florence, subsequently officiated as Mayoress.
Sir Thomas died at the age of 88, peacefully in his sleep, in the early hours of Sunday, the 8th October, 1939. The Stockport Advertiser reported on his funeral on the following Friday, the 13th October. A full page of the broadsheet was dedicated to ‘a truly great man’, the ‘Town’s Freeman and Ex-Mayor’ whose career “is an example of what can be accomplished by industry, thrift, force of character, and a capacity for taking pains.”
The Trinity Methodist Church was said to be almost completely filled by the large number of representatives who gathered there to pay their last respects. The coffin was covered with white lilies and red roses. Flowers from Stockport Council Parks Department decorated the rostrum. Some 120 boys from the Offerton Home Office School lined up outside the crematorium where a short service was conducted by the Rev. W.J. Hartley.
Funeral tributes from his copious spheres of activity provide an insight into his inordinate spread of interests ranging from leading roles in education, being ‘a wise counsellor’ as Magistrate, President of Stockport Sick Poor Nursing Association, President of the Local Preachers’ Mutual Aid Association, a first time town councilor in 1898, Mayor in 1916, Alderman in 1920, Chair of the Gas Committee, Chair of the Licensing Bench, Trustee and honorary life Vice President of Stockport Infirmary, treasurer of the Methodist Church, President of the League of Nations Union, Vice President of Stockport Garrick Society, Patron of the Stockport and East Cheshire Amateur Operatic Societies, member of the Committee of the Stockport Blind Institute, Governor of the Sir Ralph Pendlebury Charity, Chair of the Stockport Home Office School in Offerton, Chair of the National Savings Committee, President of the Police Aided Association, President of the Youth Organisations Committee, member of the Stockport Cricket Club, not to mention the various leading roles he played in the Stockport business community.
On 13.10.1939, the Stockport Advertiser records that “[h]is greatest gift to Stockport was Woodbank Hall and Park, which he gave to the town in 1921, as a memorial to the 1,700 local men who fell in the Great War. In 1931, he gave £2,000 for the restoration of the hall.”
The Mayor’s funeral oration pondered how “we should all do well to imitate such a life of extraordinary usefulness and endeavour on behalf of the people during which great sacrifices were made. From humble beginnings, which he was never ashamed to confess, he raised himself to the highest position and occupied it with distinction.”
The Mayor (Alderman T.E. Hunt) added: “There are some people we admire for their dignity, others for their popularity; some for their fairness of judgment, others for their felicity of expression; some for the planning of schemes, and others for putting them into execution. In Sir Thomas we saw a conjunction and unification of all these virtues in an eminent degree.”