This side of the street had been redeveloped at great cost in the late 1820s (with the road itself being widened fourfold) and now comprised an imposing four-storey terrace, built in brick with stucco facing. (Sadly nothing remains.) Joshua’s business continued in Lord Street for the rest of his life. Towards the end he expanded his business into publishing.
Joshua’s aged mother Elizabeth lived with him till she died in 1848. After 1839 Joshua, though unmarried, also took on responsibility for the upbringing of three of the five children left behind when his younger brother James died in that year.
He himself died in bizarre circumstances just short of his seventieth birthday in 1861, when he was run over crossing the road outside his shop in Lord Street by a horse-drawn omnibus. According to the Liverpool Mercury, the front horse knocked him down and the wheels then passed over his lower body. Such were his injuries that he was unrecognised even by his friends. He died in hospital 3 hours later without regaining consciousness. His obituary paid tribute to him as one of the oldest and most respected tradesmen in Liverpool and an influential freemason holding high office. As a result of this accident pedestrian islands were instituted in Liverpool!
Following Joshua’s death the business passed into the hands of his nephew Gilbert Gough Walmsley, who took it to new heights. The faithful family servant Elizabeth Myers stayed on with Gilbert and died in 1880 aged 72.
> James Walmsley b1794 (brother) >> John Walmsley b1796 (brother)