Aamon Wrigley - Uppermill, UK - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

"Ammon Wrigley (1861-1946) was an English poet and local historian from Saddleworth, which was in the West Riding of Yorkshire during his life and is now in Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Wrigley was born at Oxhey, Denshaw, Saddleworth, on 10 October 1861, in a poor working family. His father was a mill worker, and he had one younger brother, Charles. The family moved to Castleshaw and he attended school there but started half-time mill work at the age of nine, and worked in local woolen mills all his life. He married Emily Hudson in 1890[1]:9 and died on 31 August 1946. At his request his ashes were scattered around the Dinner Stone, a rock formation on Standedge, on the moors above Saddleworth.

Wrigley published many works of poetry and local history. His first financially successful publication was in 1910. His second book in 1912 was supported by public subscription and on its publication he was presented with a cheque for 100 guineas (£105) and his wife received a watch.

He illustrated some of his works, and Saddleworth Museum holds two of his seascapes and several other paintings and drawings.

The poet Glyn Hughes described Wrigley as "didactic and sentimental", and in discussing Hughes' book William Atkins refers to Wrigley as "Saddleworth's poet laureate" and says of him that he 'saw the moor as an enemy to be vanquished – a glowering menace, forever threatening to retake the cultivated land'." link

The Statue
The lifesize statue depicts a standing figure dressed in overcoat and cap. Commissioned by Roger Tanner for the Saddleworth Festival of the Arts of May 1991. The Manchester-based sculptor James Collins was chosen to provide the work. Collins based the sculpture on a well-known drawing of Wrigley which showed the poet on the moors in his hat and coat. The sculpture was unveiled by the local MP, Richard Wainwright in May 1991. The work was not without its critics though most of the public comments were directed at the pedestal rather than the statue itself. Objections were raised to the use of concrete when local stone would have been more in keeping with the site and, more importantly, the man.

AAMON WRIGLEY

1861 - 1946

POET AND HISTORIAN

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