The Grange, Broadhembury

The Grange, Broadhembury, west front in 2006
"Grange, seat of Francis Rose Drewe Esq." Watercolour of The Grange, Broadhembury, west front, by Rev. John Swete (d.1821) of Oxton House, Kenton, Devon, made during his visit there in June 1800. Devon Record Office 564M/F17/61
The Grange; detail from 1800 Swete watercolour

The Grange is an historic estate in the parish of Broadhembury in Devon, England. The surviving 16th-century mansion house is a grade I listed building.[1]

Ownership

The estate served originally as the grange of nearby Dunkeswell Abbey, the lands of which were sold off by the crown following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The manor of Broadhembury was amongst these possessions and was acquired from the crown by Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (1505-1550), whose grandson sold it to Edward Drew (c.1542–1598).[2]

1921 photograph of panelling in the drawing room of The Grange, now in the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The relief sculpted panels on the doors depict scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses

Arthur Charles Edward Locke, of Northmoor, eldest son of Adèle Caroline Drewe, sold the Grange[3] in 1903.[4] At some time before 1927[5] the 17th-century carved decorative oak panelling of the room in the south cross-wing was purchased by the art dealer "Charles of London" (Charles Duveen, younger brother of Joseph Duveen) and was shipped to its New York showroom where it was purchased by the tycoon William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) who placed it in warehouse storage together with many other such purchases.[6] Reference to these warehouses is made in the famous 1941 film Citizen Kane:[7]

"Contents of Kane's palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace, shipped to Florida from every corner of the earth, from other Kane houses, warehouses, where they mouldered for years. Enough for ten museums - the loot of the world."

In 1943/4 it was purchased by Dr Preston Pope Satterwhite of Louisville, Kentucky (a friend of Mrs J.B. Speed)[8] who donated it to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.[9][10] In 1943 it was reassembled in the museum as a slightly longer room, called "The English Renaissance Room", but reopened in March 2016 after substantial refurbishment in its original proportions.[11]

In 2009 the Grange was owned by Kirstie Allsopp.[12]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Listed building text
  2. ↑ Pole, p.182
  3. ↑ Punchard
  4. ↑ Devon Record Office, DRO 547B/188, sale particulars 1903
  5. ↑ Listed in Charles of London catalogue, 1927, per
  6. ↑ The William Randolph Hearst Archive: An Emerging Opportunity for Digital Art Research and Scholarship, Catherine Larkin, Long Island University, pp.1-2
  7. ↑ Screenplay Citizen Kane, spoken by The Narrator
  8. ↑ Kentucky New Era newspaper, Thursday 11 July, p.58
  9. ↑ Harris, John, Moving Rooms: the Trade in Architectural Salvages, London, 2007, p.24
  10. ↑ Listed building text
  11. ↑ Louisville Courier-Journal online newspaper, February 5, 2016
  12. ↑ Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, whose members were invited to view the Grange by Kirstie Allsopp on 29 August 2009
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.