Until now, little has been known about the twelve years Isambard Kingdom Brunel spent creating his Watcombe estate and planning his magnificent house. This was to have been the fulfilment of his lifelong dream.

When he was a young man of twenty one, he wrote of his 'chateaux d'Espagne' or 'castles in the air' as he called them. He set out a number of aspirations that showed he clearly had his eyes firmly fixed on paving his way to fame and fortune through his innovative engineering projects. The list included his desire to build a fine house to reflect the wealth he would achieve.

Although his Watcombe venture involved Brunel personally in more time and money than any of his engineering exploits, very little has been written about it in the past. During the time in which he was developing his estate, we see a Brunel in tune with nature, treasuring times at Watcombe with his family, being generous to his estate workers and getting very involved in the local community in a variety of ways. Sadly, Brunel died in 1859, aged 53, when only the cellars and foundations had been constructed; so he never lived here.

The house proceeded no further until the 1870s, when Mr James Roper Crompton bought the estate and built the house upon the existing foundations to a modified plan. This was added to by the next owner, Col. Ichabod Wright.

The property changed hands several times. In 1932, it was bought by the Christian Holiday Fellowship. In the 1950s, the house at Watcombe became known as Brunel Manor. It has been owned by The Woodlands House of Prayer Trust since 1962 and is run as a Christian Holiday and Conference Centre.

It was suggested that Brunel Manor should participate in the 2006 Brunel 200 Celebrations, a project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, involving many Brunel sites throughout the region. What began with the idea of opening up the grounds to visitors a few times during the year was to become the start of a huge project of garden restoration. A former head gardener at Brunel Manor, Andy Maltas, who had returned to work there in 2005, knew that many of Brunel's original features lay hidden under decades of overgrowth.

As research was undertaken, we discovered that Brunel himself had drawn many plans in his sketch books and made very detailed planting notes in his Watcombe Garden Book. He had even measured his growing trees over several years. Using these and other resources, work on restoration began. The Brunel 200 funding facilitated the formation of a garden trail with interpretation panels, the production of a detailed map and the setting up of an exhibition showing the history of Brunel at Watcombe. Tree plaques to Brunel's design were commissioned and yew trees in tubs set out on the terrace, as described in his Watcombe Garden Book.

A delightful discovery that came to light during the research was that Brunel had been a man of prayer. A pencil box bearing the initials of his son Henry Brunel was inherited by his great granddaughter. She found that one of the envelopes locked inside it contained a letter that Brunel had written to his son Isambard at the time of the difficult launching of the Great Eastern.

This letter, bequeathed to his brother Henry as "my most treasured possession", concludes:
"Finally, let me impress upon you the advantage of prayer. I am not prepared to say that the prayers of individuals can be separately and individually granted, that would seem incompatible with the regular movements of the mechanism of the Universe, and it would seem impossible to explain why prayer should be now granted, now refused; but this I can assure you, that I have ever, in my difficulties, prayed fervently, and that - in the end - my prayers have been, or have appeared to me to be, granted, and I have received great comfort."

It seems that Brunel found his property at Watcombe to be a sanctuary away from the pressures of his heavy workload. He also wanted others to enjoy it and instructed his gardener 'to have the liberty of admitting any person to view the grounds'. The Woodlands House Of Prayer Trust was established to provide a home where people could receive spiritual and physical rest. It is therefore in keeping with this ethos that the Brunel Manor grounds should be open for others to see and to find rest and refreshment in body, mind and spirit.

Brunel's great great granddaughter, Lady Thomas, officially opened the grounds on April 9th 2006, the 200th Anniversary of Brunel's birth.


Brunel family photograph of people walking and working in the grounds of the Watcombe Estate © Bristol University

Brunel's great great grand children, Lady Thomas and Lord Gladwyn at the grand opening of Brunel Manor gardens
© Herald Express, Torquay