Town’s oldest man dies, aged 103
12:35pm Friday 6th July 2007 in Your Town By Rob Devey
DIED: Leslie Fearnhead
A FORMER Horwich councillor and ice cream maker, believed to have been the town's oldest resident, has died aged 103.
Leslie Fearnhead, who had also been a greengrocer, a lorry driver, a taxi driver and a petrol station owner during his working life, died on Monday.
Mr Fearnhead lived in Chorley New Road until last December when he moved to Lyngate Residential Home in Deane.
Mr Fearnhead, who was one of eight children, followed in his father William Fearnhead and grandfather Jonas Fearnhead's footsteps by serving as an independent on the Horwich Urban District Council from 1962, becoming chairman in 1970.
From 1974, when the council was abolished, Mr Fearnhead represented the area for four years on Bolton Council and he was honoured with a civic medal on his 100th birthday.
In the 1920s, he ran a greengrocer's shop in Winter Hey Lane before managing a haulage business and driving lorries in the 1930s.
The 1940s saw him manage the Crown Garage petrol station, which became the base for his one-man taxi firm, and the Crown Temperance Bar in Chorley New Road, where he sold sweets and his home-made ice cream and served teenagers with soft drinks.
From the early 1950s, he ran a grocery shop in Crown Lane before retiring in the late 1960s.
His daughter Kathleen Allen, who lives in Blackrod, said: "My father was a Horwich man through and through. He was also a family man."
Mrs Allen said her father and mother, Doris, who died at Easter last year aged 101, had been known for their early morning walks to Rivington Barn and enjoyed trips to the seaside.
"He was driving until the age of 90," she said.
"He was a Methodist and did not drink or smoke - he would have approved of the ban on smoking in public places."
Former Bolton Evening News reporter Brian Smith, who covered Horwich Urban District Council in the 1960s, said: "A lot of people liked him because he was perceived as their champion. He was quite outspoken and used to sound off in meetings against officialdom and make officials and other members cringe."
The Mayor of Bolton, and Horwich town and borough councillor, Barbara Ronson, said: "He made a big contribution to the town. Even at 100 he was still active and involved in trying to keep us on our toes. People of all parties respected him."
Mr Fearnhead had three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Mr Fearnhead's funeral is at noon today at the Overdale West Chapel, with the cortege leaving from the Private Chapel in Church Street, Horwich at 11.30am.
