Ammon Wrigley

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

[1]: 12–13 [3] 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".

[1][4] The Ammon Wrigley Fellowship Society was formed on 27 August 1931 at a meeting held in Austerlands, to honour the poet during his lifetime.

[5][6] He is commemorated by a bronze statue in Uppermill by Manchester sculptor James Collins, commissioned as part of the 1991 Saddleworth Festival for the Arts .

[8] Alfred Wainwright in his 1968 Pennine Way Companion describes Ammon Wrigley as a "much-revered writer and poet whose love of the country around his native Saddleworth shone in all his works" and mentions an annual commemorative ceremony at the memorial stone; he includes a sketch of "The Ammon Wrigley Memorial Stone" showing the plaques.