Joseph Mallord William Turner

Bradley Manor, a medieval house now owned by the National Trust, is situated in woodland on the south-west outskirts of Newton Abbot, about half a mile east of Ogwell Mill; see folios 76 recto and verso and the recto of the present leaf (D08508–D08510; CXXIII 73, 73a, 74). Its subject confirmed by Arthur Ebdon,1 it is seen from the east in Turner’s slight sketch with the gatehouse block (demolished in 1842),2 its archway in shadow, and the series of gable-ends on the entrance front beyond. There appears to be a separate sketch or sketches of architectural details on the right.

An engraving by Frederick Nash published in Daniel and Samuel Lysons’s Devonshire (London 1822), the sixth volume of their Magna Britannia,3 shows the gatehouse and high wall in front of the house as indicated in Turner’s sketch, while a 1795 watercolour by John Swete shows the house in its wooded valley setting (Devon Record Office, Exeter).4 It is mentioned in Turner’s notes on West Country sites from a recent edition of John Feltham’s Guide to All the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places in the Vale of Heathfield sketchbook, probably in preparation for the 1811 tour, as ‘Bradley an ancient Gothic House the property of Tho Lane Esqr’5 (Tate D10206; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 1).