John Birchenough JP (1 November 1825 – 7 May 1895) was an English silk manufacturer and local politician in Macclesfield, Cheshire in the nineteenth century.
[3] The next stage in his business career was the purchase of the Chester-road Mills, from the Manchester silk firm of Taylor, Harrop, and Pearce and the construction of a large shed to house power looms.
During this period Birchenough also had a silk throwster business in partnership with Joseph Arnold, which they carried out at the Prestbury Road mills.
The walls were adorned by appropriate mottoes, even unique representations of the bridal ceremony had been devised, and everything betokened the happy understanding existing there between labor and capital.
In 1887 he served on the executive committee attached to the silk section of the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition.
On the same day that he took office the council accepted a resolution moved by R. Brodrick, and seconded by Alderman Jackson, recommending that the names of R. Thorp, A. Hordern, G. R. Killmister, J. Birchenough, C. Brocklehurst, and J. Dawson, be forwarded to the Lord Chancellor for appointment as borough magistrates, and in due course the names were placed on the commission of the peace.
He was governor of the Macclesfield Infirmary, a governor of the High School for Girls, a member of the committee of the Macclesfield Industrial School, vice chairman and an ex-president of the Chamber of Commerce, and in connection with the Wesleyan body, a member of the Circuit Finance Committee.
[3] He also served as chairman and treasurer of Mill Street Wesleyan School and supported the work of the "useful Knowledge Society".
He lived in what The Drapery World described at the time of his death as "The Elms, a pretty mansion in Byrons' lane, Sutton, Macclesfield".
His youngest grandson William Taylor Birchenough played in Fowler's Match in 1910 and was an aviation pioneer.