Thomas Wrigley was born in Bury in 1808, the son of a wealthy paper manufacturer, James Wrigley. On his father’s death in 1846, he inherited Bridge Hall Paper Mills. For Wrigley’s first twenty years as owner, much of the mills’ output was newsprint for The Times and The Guardian. He managed the business well and later bought a cotton mill. Such was his success that one contemporary wrote that he was “largely responsible for making Bury one of the greatest paper-making centres in the world”. The mills were huge, believed to be the biggest in the world at the time, and stretched for half a mile along the River Roch. On his death in 1880, Wrigley’s fortune was valued at £1.1m, approximately £66m in today’s money.

Thomas Wrigley
Wrigley was also an art collector and left a substantial collection on his death. Bury Art Gallery still holds this collection of paintings and Wedgewood china which Wrigley’s children donated to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. In fact, the donation was the impetus for the creation of the Gallery, with the family stipulating that the gift was conditional on the creation of a building to house the collection. Thomas’s son Oswald laid the foundation stone for the new Art Gallery and Public Library in 1899. One of public official noted: ‘It is a happy thing for the people of Bury that our friends, the members of the Wrigley family, inherited not only the pictures from their father, but that they inherited also his generous impulses and kindly heart. We honour them, and are grateful to them for the magnificent gift’. The Wrigley collection included paintings by Turner, Landseer and Constable.
Wrigley was a Unitarian and a Liberal and served as High Sheriff of Lancashire. Politically he was in favour of free trade, compulsory education and household suffrage. Given his interest in educational reform, it is not surprising that he gave money to MGS. In common with many of our benefactors, he was also a supporter of Owens College, later to become the University of Manchester.
High Master Frederick Walker’s reforms of the School in the 1860s led to rising numbers on the roll and a need for new buildings. A public appeal for funds was launched and Thomas Wrigley donated £500 towards the cost of the new buildings which were completed in 1881. He also bequeathed a further £5000 to the School, and his name was added to the Founders’ Prayer that will be familiar to Old Mancunians.
Rachel Kneale
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