Lancashire architect (FRIBA), whose extensive practice included many Methodist projects. He was born in Preston, the seventh child of Thomas Brocklehurst (1840-93), a prosperous tailor and draper, and Phoebe Heywood Brocklehurst, née Ridyard (1840-1911). He trained as an architect and surveyor, practising at Waterfoot in Rossendale. His first Wesleyan commission was probably a chapel at Little Lever, Bolton (1902-03) and he went on to design numerous chapels, many in a fashionable decorated gothic style, ‘freely treated’. Commissions included Nant-y-Glyn WM, Colwyn Bay (1904-05), Uppermill WM, Greater Manchester (1912-13), Wincanton WM (1915), Woodseats WM, Sheffield (1915-16), Lidgett Park WM, Leeds (1921-26), Southbourne WM, Swanage (1925-26), Horton Bank PM, Bradford (1927), Lady Lane Memorial, Gipton (1936) and Fareham (1939). Plans for Dalton (Huddersfield), Gorse Hill, Stretford (Manchester) and Avenue Road, Pinner, were published in the WM Minutes of Conference in 1913 and 1914, by which time Brocklehurst’s main office was in Manchester. Alan Wiseman Hornabrook (1887-1943), son of the Rev. John Hornabrook, Secretary of the Wesleyan Chapel Committee from 1897 to 1932, joined the practice, probably before 1914, and was a partner by 1922. In the inter-war period, the firm designed or rebuilt churches from Salcombe to Stockport and from Watford to the Wirral, and also built many central halls, including Tonypandy (1922-23), Carlisle (1923), Ashington (1923), Blackburn (1924), Eastney, Portsmouth (1924), Southampton (1925), Walsall (1929), Bargoed (1930-31), Slough (1932), Longton (1933) and Grimsby (1934). Brocklehurst continued to practise in the North West, and died in Birkdale, Southport, on 6 September 1960, survived by his wife Helen, née Ashcroft (1880-1970) and their son John Arthur.

Entry written by: DCD
Category: Person
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