A Nod to Dr Samuel Taylor Chadwick (1809-1876)

Most of us have perhaps scurried past the statue of Dr Samuel Taylor Chadwick, erected in 1873 on the Town Hall square, Bolton, with neither a nod nor a wink in his direction, let alone as to acknowledge what the statue represents. And although Dr Chadwick was not born in Bolton, but in Urmston, Lancashire, he remains one of Bolton’s most revered and respected individuals.  

Samuel Taylor Chadwick moved to Bolton at the age of 14 to live with his uncle, also a doctor, in the then Sweet Green area of the town; he studied medicine at the University of London in 1828 and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) (‘Samuel Taylor Chadwick’, 2021). But it is within our town of Bolton where Dr Chadwick achieved many great things. He was a doctor, an MP, a philanthropist and a lecturer. He was also extremely charitable and self-funded a number of projects across the borough. He established an eye clinic, an ear, nose and throat clinic, and became an honorary surgeon at Bolton Royal Infirmary. He was also elected to Bolton Council and fought for better public health provision and built rows of houses for the poor (families who were living in cellar dwellings), including Portugal Street, among others, as shown, here. He was also responsible for establishing a natural history museum in the town’s Queen’s Park, as Bolton Library and Museum explain, which was the basis of the present Bolton Museum on Le Mans Crescent.   

However, you could say his greatest achievement was establishing and funding an orphanage: Chadwick’s Orphanage, which opened on Bromwich Street in 1874, housing up to 80 orphans at a time, mainly young girls from the workhouses (‘Samuel Taylor Chadwick’, 2021). The orphanage closed in around 1930, and after the second World War the premises were used as a Ministry of Labour hostel known as Chadwick House.