THIS week in Yester Years we are looking at the remarkable life and death of one of Warrington’s great characters of the 19th century.

Tannery owner Sylvanus Reynolds was not only a business leader but magistrate, member of Warrington Borough Council and active and prominent Conservative.

He help to build the former Conservative Club on Sankey Street and lived at Raddon Court – formerly the site of the well-known furniture shop.

Yet one of the most remarkable things about his life was his death on November 13, 1887.

According to reports at the time, it occurred the day after a shooting incident in which, while climbing a fence, his gun was accidentally discharged, causing extensive injury to a leg which had to be amputated at a nearby house.

His funeral was an impressive occasion, with hundreds of people lining the road from his home at Raddon Court to watch the procession to St Wilfrid’s CE Church in Grappenhall.

Taken by carriage, the mourners included Sir Gilbert and Lady Greenall, together with other dignitaries from politics and industry.

He became the sole owner of Latchford Tannery in 1868 and by 1878 was also chairman of companies: Arthur Waring & Co, also tanners, in Winwick Street; the Castle Rubber Company in Bridge Street.

He built the Raddon Court mansion in 1883 and he also erected a row of cottages for the workforce.

The house has been demolished now and replaced by the current Raddon Court business.

A former captain of the Warrington Volunteers force, he also presented the stain glass east window to Christ Church in Latchford, along with wife Jane, a month before his death.

Tragically, to mark his services to the Conservative Association, members had subscribed for a marble bust to be sculpted in Italy.

But it came in the week that he died.

Donated by his wife Jane in 1888, the bust was placed in the foyer of the Conservative Club’s Sankey Street premises, where it remained until 1970 when the building was vacated before it was demolished as part of town centre works.

It was later given back to the current Warrington Conservative Club back in 1992.