Joseph Mallord William Turner

This previously unidentified sketch probably shows St Mary’s Church at Happisburgh, a village on the northeast Norfolk coast. Built on Norman foundations, the church was demolished and reconstructed in the fifteenth century.1 To this day the tower of St Mary’s is an important landmark to mariners warning of the position of treacherous sandbanks nearby. Turner has drawn details of the stone tracery decorating one of the windows at top right and on the opposite side of the leaf, details of some moulding. See also Tate D18229–D18233; Turner Bequest CCIX 37a–39a).

Turner produced a vignette design of Happisburgh, entitled Hasboro Sands (Happisburgh is pronounced ‘Haysborough’), for the East Coast publication, though it was never engraved (see general introduction).2