Thomas Farnolls Pritchard
Thomas Farnolls Pritchard | |
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| Born | Thomas Farnolls Pritchard May 1723 Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England |
| Died | 23 December 1777 (aged 54) |
| Known for | designing the Iron Bridge |
| Spouse | Elinor Russell |
| Children | 3 |
Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (also known as Farnolls Pritchard; baptised 11 May 1723 – 23 December 1777) was an English architect and interior decorator who is best remembered for his design of the first cast-iron bridge in the world.
Biography
[edit]Pritchard was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and baptised in St Julian's Church, Shrewsbury on 11 May 1723. His father was a joiner. Thomas also trained as a joiner, but then developed a professional practice as an architect and interior designer. He specialised in the design of chimney-pieces and other items of interior decoration, and in funerary monuments.[1]
Pritchard worked closely with other local architects and craftsmen. William Baker of Audlem, an architect and contractor, used his plans to construct St John's Church, Wolverhampton.[2] Joseph Bromfield, who worked for Pritchard initially as a plasterer, but became a very competent draughtsman and architect, appears to have taken over a large portion of Pritchard's architectural practice after Pritchard's death.[3] Pritchard's houses and churches have been described as "no more than pleasant provincial work".[1] Such work includes the rebuilding of St Julian's Church, Shrewsbury, and Hatton Grange, Shropshire.[1]
Examples of Pritchard's interior decoration include Croft Castle, Gaines in Whitbourne, Herefordshire, Shipton Hall, Shropshire, the ballroom at Powis Castle, and chimney-pieces at Broseley Hall, The Lawns, Broseley, and Benthall Hall.[1][4] He also designed the rococo drawing room at Tatton Hall, Cheshire.[5]
In the design of funerary monuments he employed coloured marbles, characterised by Rupert Gunnis as "school of Henry Cheere".[6] These were usually in rococo or Gothic style, and later in neoclassical style.[4] They include monuments to Ann Wilkinson, 1756, at Wrexham, Denbighshire; the Rev. John Lloyd, 1758, and Mary Morhall, 1765, both at St. Mary's Shrewsbury; and Richard Corbet, at Moreton Corbet, Shropshire.[6] Pritchard's monuments can be found in churches across Shropshire, including also churches at Acton Round, Ludford and Barrow.[1][4]
Pritchard designed the Shrewsbury foundling hospital (an offshoot of that in London), built in 1760, later a workhouse and in 1882 adapted as the present campus premises for Shrewsbury School.[7] Pritchard carried out work in Ludlow, including rebuilding its jail and the Hosier's Almshouses, and making alterations to the Guildhall.[4]
In 1769, he left Shrewsbury and moved to Eyton on Severn where he took up farming as well as continuing with his architectural work.[4] He made various designs for bridges, none of which came to fruition, until he made plans for a bridge in cast iron to cross the River Severn in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, adapting the principles of timber bridge-building. A modified version of his design was cast at the ironworks in Coalbrookdale in 1777–79.
Death
[edit]Pritchard died, aged 54, before the bridge was completed, but his design of The Iron Bridge led to the building of the first cast-iron arch bridge in the world.
He was buried in St Julian's, Shrewsbury,[1] where his monument also commemorates his wife, Elinor Russell, of Shrewsbury (married 1751, died 1768) and three children who died young.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Leach, Peter, ‘Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls (bap. 1723, d.1798)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [1], accessed 1 September 2008.
- ^ Colvin H. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 Yale University Press, 3rd edition London, 2008, 93 and 783
- ^ "Colvin" 162-3, illustrates the close relationship between Pritchard and Bromfield's work.
- ^ a b c d e West, Veronica (1982), "Broseley Hall and Thomas Farnolls Prichard", Journal of the Broseley Local History Society, 10.
- ^ Images of England: Tatton Hall, English Heritage, retrieved 1 September 2008
- ^ a b c Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851, rev. ed. [1968], s.v. "Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls".
- ^ de Saulles, Mary (2012). The Story of Shrewsbury. Logaston Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 978-1-906663-681.
Further reading
[edit]- Ionides, Julia (1998), Thomas Farnolls Pritchard of Shrewsbury: Architect and 'Inventor of Cast Iron Bridges', Dog Rose Press, ISBN 978-0-9528367-1-1
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