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. 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.
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. Pritchard's houses and churches have been described as "no more than pleasant provincial work". In the design of funerary monuments he employed coloured marbles, characterised by
Rupert Gunnis as "school of
Henry Cheere". These were usually in
rococo or
Gothic style, and later in
neoclassical style. 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. Pritchard carried out work in
Ludlow, including rebuilding its jail and the Hosier's Almshouses, and making alterations to the
Guildhall. designed by Pritchard and made by
Abraham Darby's
Coalbrookdale works In 1769, he left Shrewsbury and moved to
Eyton on Severn where he took up farming as well as continuing with his architectural work. 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==