Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls

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Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls (1723–77). English architect. Competent in Rococo and Gothick styles, he practised mainly in his native Salop., where he designed an enormous number of buildings and other structures, including the first cast-iron bridge in the world, at Coalbrookdale over the Severn (1775). Built by Abraham Darby (1750–91) in 1777–9, the bridge was illustrated in The Philosophical Magazine and Annals of Philosophy (1832) and in John White's (d. 1850) On Cementitious Architecture as applicable to the Construction of Bridges, with a Prefatory Notice of the First Introduction of Iron as the Constituent Material for Arches of Large Span, by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard in 1773 (1832). Among his other works are Hosyer's Almshouses (1758–9), and The Guildhall, Mill Street (1774–6), both in Ludlow, Salop. He made early designs for Payne Knight's Downton Castle, Herefs. (1772), one of the key buildings of the Picturesque, but the Castle as realized was mostly Knight's work.

Bibliography

Ballantyne (1997);
Colvin (1995);
J. Curl (2002a);
Ionides (1999);
Pevsner (1958);
Pevsner: BoE, Shropshire (1958)

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls

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