Urgent repairs needed at Bury Art Gallery as artwork risks being damaged by water from leaking roof

Urgent repairs are needed at Bury Art Museum with paintings and other works at risk of being damaged by water passing through the leaky roof. An application for listed building consent lodged in the past few days states ‘water ingress poses a risk to the artwork housed inside the museum’ and that primary façades now have visible damage from water.

The application says the historic significance of the entire Grade II listed building is under threat from ‘physical fabric loss’ caused by numerous failings in the roof allowing rainwater to enter the spaces below. The art gallery, on Moss Street, was specially built to house the Wrigley Collection, around 200 oil paintings, watercolours, prints and ceramics collected by paper manufacturer Thomas Wrigley.

His three children gave the collection to the townsfolk of Bury in 1897. Among the notable oil paintings on display are JMW Turner’s, ‘Calais Sands at Low Water, Poissard’s ‘Collecting Bait’, Sir Edwin Landseer’s, ‘The Random Shot’ and Lady Elizabeth Butler’s, ‘Listed For The Connaught Rangers’.

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Successive curators have added to Wrigley’s legacy. There are 20th century paintings by artists such as Victor Pasmore and Edward Burra, and a growing selection of contemporary artists including Janice Kerbel, Lawrence Weiner and Samson Kambalu.

Bury Council’s planning application, dated February 15 said: “The condition issues are placing both the aesthetic significance, through visible damage to primary façades and areas and historic significance, through physical fabric loss, at risk.

“In addition, increased water ingress poses a risk to the artwork housed inside the museum. “The museum was built to display the collection, and