John Prichard (6 May 1817 – 13 October 1886) was a Welsh architect in the neo-Gothic style.[1] As diocesan architect of Llandaff, he was involved in the building or restoration of many churches in south Wales.
John Prichard | |
---|---|
Born | Llangan, Glamorgan, Wales | 6 May 1817
Died | 13 October 1886 Cardiff, Wales | (aged 69)
John Prichard was born in Llangan, near Cowbridge, Wales on 6 May 1817, the twelfth son of the rector Richard Prichard, who served as vicar-choral of Llandaff for 35 years.[2] He was descended from the Prichard family of Collenna.[3] John Prichard trained as an architect under Thomas Larkins Walker, and as a result was deeply influenced by the ideas of Augustus Pugin; much of his work was in a neo-Gothic style.[4]
He established a practice in Llandaff, Cardiff, becoming 'Resident Diocesan Architect' in December 1844.[5][6] Between 1852 and 1863 he was in partnership with John Pollard Seddon. Many of his major commissions were restoration works, most famously for Llandaff Cathedral (1843–69); Prichard and Seddon worked on the cathedral from the 1840s until 1869, when the south-western tower was completed (to Prichard's own design).[7] Much of their work was destroyed by enemy bombing during the Second World War.[8]
Prichard died, unmarried and childless, at the age of 69, and is buried on the south side of the cathedral.[9] On Prichard's death, Seddon succeeded him as diocesan architect.[10]
The Prichard Bridge, named after the architect, was built in about 1880 to allow carriages to cross the feeder channel between the River Taff and the Llandaff corn mill.[11] It is a Grade II listed building. The mill was demolished in about 1932 and the stream no longer exists; the lower part of the bridge is buried and no longer visible.[12]
One of the few secular buildings on which Prichard & Seddon worked was Ettington Park, where Prichard's brother Richard was vicar.[13] Prichard also designed Nazareth House, Cardiff, a Catholic almshouse built on land donated by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The chapel of the latter was not Prichard's work; it was added later.[14]
Parish Church of St. Swithin, was entirely rebuilt in 1850...