A brief history of Brunel Manor home of
the Woodlands House of Prayer Trust.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of this
country's greatest engineers, born at the
beginning of the 19th Century in 1806, he
died in 1859 at the age of 53. His father
was also a great engineer and with him he
built the first tunnel under the River Thames
which is still part of the London Underground
system. As a result of working there he
was taken ill and moved Brighton and then
on to Bristol for convalescence. Whilst
staying in Bristol he designed the Clifton
Suspension Bridge.
Brunel became involved in building what
became the Great Western Railway System
between Bristol and London. In 1850 the
London to Exeter 7ft gauge railway line
was opened which involved many tunnels and
bridges designed by Brunel. Whilst working
in this part of the country on his railway
systems, he constructed the Atmospheric
Railway which used the pressure of the atmosphere
as a propelling force in a tube between
the rails instead of steam being generated
in a mobile engine. Remains of this can
still be seen at Starcross where the old
Atmospheric Pumping Station building is
now occupied by a sailing club; at Dawlish,
and at Torquay where a pumping tower still
remains in reasonable condition alongside
the railway line 200 yards north of Lawes
Bridge. The Newton Abbot GWR and the Teignmouth
& Shaldon museums both have displays
of the atmospheric railway, including sections
of the atmospheric tube.
He was also involved in marine engineering,
designing and building the Great Eastern
in 1857, preceded by the most famous ship
of all, the S.S. Great Britain, launched
in 1843; the first boat with an all iron
hull and a screw propeller to cross the
Atlantic and the first one to have flushing
W.C.'s! The SSGB has returned home to Bristol
and is now open to visitors. Brunel also
designed the steam dredger Bertha, and he
put his inventive powers to gunnery and
to appliances in hospitals, including a
mobile hospital in the Crimea.
 He
was also a considerable architect and his
works include the largest brick built span
bridge in the world over the River Thames
at Maidenhead, the Temple Meads Railway
Station in Bristol (part of which is still
Brunel's original work). His sketchbooks,
now preserved at Bristol University, are
filled with a variety of designs for his
own home. It was whist staying here between
1847 and 1859 that he progressively collected
one hundred acres of land to build a villa
for his retirement. That land consisted
of the present grounds of Brunel Manor,
together with the land which is now the
Brunel Park Housing Estate and the public
park and roads to the south of Brunel Woods.
To the west the estate extended to Peasland
Cottage which used to stand at the lower
end of Peasland Road. Additionally he acquired
another thirty six acres of common grazing
land eastward to the coast including the
Valley of the Rocks and south to Moor Lane;
this he jointly owned with three other people.
Brunel chose the site because of its superb
outlook across Torbay and its proximity
to Teignmouth and the Newton Abbot railway
termini, which was at that time the end
of his railway line from Bristol. He planned
an avenue of trees which was to connect
the property to Newton Abbot via the crest
of the Great Hill to Barton Cross, the remains
of which can still be seen.
When he bought the site, the old Teignmouth
- Torbay road went right through the centre
of it, so he obtained permission to close
it and diverted the traffic to the new turnpike
and then built a bridge over it to connect
the land he owned on either side of the
road. The manor side abutment of the bridge
can be seen on the far side of the top car
park. He carefully landscaped the Manor
grounds under the guidance of Alexander
Forsyth -a leading garden designer of his
day, noted for his experience in planting
large estates, Alton Towers being his most
famous. He constructed a series of water
gardens through the valley, the top pond
of which is in the manor grounds and has
recently been uncovered. He planted many
varieties of quite rare trees from all round
the world on the slopes; much of his arboretum
can still be seen although many of the trees
are now over mature. Brunel terraced the
gardens, laid the foundations and built
the cellars of the house he had helped William
Burn to design. Burn was the most exclusive
country house architect of the day and a
copy of his original design is on display;
the original is in the R.I.B.A. library.
Brunel died before the building work could
get any further.
After Brunel's death the property passed
into the hands of John and Robert Vicary
for a short period and was then purchased
by James Roper Crompton. Mr Crompton was
a very wealthy paper manufacturer owning
extensive mills near
 Bury
in Lancashire. It was Mr Crompton who built
the present house on the foundations and
to the ground plan of Brunel. But the building
itself was designed on the French style
rather than the Italianate fascia which
Brunel may have finally intended. He called
his home and estate Watcombe Park. By this
time 17 years had passed since Brunel’s
death in 1859 and in 1876 the whole estate
changed hands again for the sum of £22,900.
For this princely sum Lt. Col. Charles Ichabold
Wright of Stableford Hill, Nottingham purchased
not only the Manor with its large stable
block (now the Court) and Brunel Lodge,
but also twelve other dwelling houses and
cottages on land in the vicinity, totalling
five hundred acres.
The house remained in the ownership of the
Wright family for several years, being the
subject of a legal battle within the family
which lasted from 1902–1907. It was
once occupied by Mr James Peck whose son
Henry William Peck received a baronetcy
for his philanthropy and scientific interests.
He erected an astronomical observatory at
Rousden in East Devon. When ownership of
the property was eventually resolved, some
small parts of the estate were sold separately,
but the bulk was sold for £15,000
to Sir John Edwards Moss, second baronet
and eldest son of the first baronet of Otterspool
and Roby, who purchased the property with
the probable intention of having it as his
family seat for many years.
It was during Sir John's time that the
Rodenhurst Room was added, probably for
use as a venue for formal functions, balls
and banquets etc. Originally the room went
from floor level to the apex of the beam
roof; the floor of the single bedrooms was
inserted within the structure in 1980 without
in any way altering the external architecture.
Sir John changed the name of the estate
from Watcombe Park to Roby Hall.
Sir John sold the estate to Frederick James
Lund for £17,500 in 1923 and moved
to Henley on Thames where he died in 1935
leaving Sir Thomas Edwards Moss, his son,
to inherit the baronetcy. Mr Lund disposed
of large portions of the land to Torbay
Council including that part which now follows
the public park south of the land. The mansion
itself reverted to the name Watcombe Park
and was bought by Thomas John Crossman,
a timber merchant of Torquay, in 1932.
Mr Crossman quickly resold the Manor itself,
together with approximately twelve acres
of land to the Holiday Fellowship who made
it into a Christian Holiday Home until the
outbreak of the Second World War. The Holiday
Fellowship renamed the mansion Brunel Manor.
From 1940-1945 the property was occupied
by Stockwell Teacher Training College who
were evacuated from Bromley. The stable
block (now the Court) had soldiers billeted
in it, but the Lodge which had also been
sold off to private owners, continued as
a guest house. After the cessation of hostilities
the Holiday Fellowship re-opened Brunel
Manor as a holiday home and the Woodlands
House of Prayer Trust purchased the Manor
from the Holiday Fellowship in 1963. The
Trust repurchased Brunel Lodge from private
owners in 1986.
Alterations and additions to the Manor carried
out by the Trust include building the Woodlands
Wing of single bedrooms (1980), the swimming
pool (1982), the garden room extension of
the dining room (1984), and the Barbour
Wing of ground floor bedrooms (1985). In
1991 The Vera Hawkins Suite purpose built
for conferences was completed together with
7 additional ensuite bedrooms. In 2000 a
lift was installed making all floors accessible.
Celebrating the 200 years since the birth
of Brunel, extensive work has been done
in the gardens to start to rediscover and
restore many of the original features of
the gardens, many of which have lain hidden
for decades. These include cobble-edged
trackways, the Italian garden, the top pond
of the romantic water feature, footings
of the road bridge, Brunel's seat and the
wildflower meadow. Complementing these,
the Woodlands Walk and other pathways have
been reopened. The prayer garden has also
been restored, providing a peaceful, secluded
area where people can sit and meet with
their heavenly Father.
Irrespective of this human ownership and
the history of the house, we give thanks
to the Lord that it is His property and
we seek to maintain it to His glory and
honour so that all those who come through
it's doors can find rest and refreshment
in body, mind and spirit.
|
