Wigan experienced dramatic economic growth and the population grew rapidly as the coal and textile industry expanded in the 1870s and 1880s.
His brother Walter was Mayor of Wigan between 1876 and 1878 and in 1883 Mayhew formed a partnership with W. E. Gladstone, then Prime Minister.
[8] In the early 20th Century Horace Mayhew and Thomas Lancaster founded the town of Broughton, Nova Scotia and established the Cape Breton Coal, Iron & Railway Company.
He was extensively involved in the planning of Broughton and invested heavily in the development of the town and mines, of which there were several workable seams.
The town was one of the first planned communities in Canada and the Broughton Arms, a palatial hotel, was said to be the ‘best east of Montreal’.