The Grange, Broadhembury

The Grange is a historic estate in the parish of Broadhembury in Devon, England. The surviving 16th-century mansion house (known as The Grange) is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England.[1]

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
"Grange, Devonshire", 1829 engraving

Descent

Dunkeswell Abbey

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]

Drew
Main article: The Drewe family of Broadhembury
The Drewe Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, attributed to George Gower (c.1540–1596),[3]

Edward Drew (c.1542–1598)[4] of Killerton in the parish of Broadclyst Devon, purchased the manor of Broadhembury including the lands and buildings of the grange of Dunkeswell Abbey.

Locke
  • Arthur Charles Edward Locke, of Northmoor, eldest son and heir of his mother Adèle Caroline Drewe (d.1895) (Mrs Locke). He sold Grange[5] which thus in 1903 passed from the ownership of the Drewe family and its descendants.

Other
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

In 1903 Grange was sold[6] and passed from the ownership of the Drewe family. At some time before 1927[7] the 17th-century carved and highly decorative oak panelling of the room in the south crosswing 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.[8] Reference to these warehouses is made in the famous 1941 film Citizen Kane:[9]

"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)[10] who donated it to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.[11][1] 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.[12]

Allsopp

In the late 1990s, The Grange was purchased by Ben Andersen. He is the husband of television personality and property consultant Kirstie Allsopp (born 1971), the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, a former chairman of Christie's auctioneers.[13] The gardens of The Grange were featured in the 2017 book The Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley and photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas.[14]

Further reading
  • Country Life magazine, vol. 16, 1904, p. 162
  • Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, vol. 3, 1904-5, pp. 41–4, 73

References
  1. Historic England, "Grange (1098064)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 8 November 2017
  2. Pole, p.182
  3. Philip Mould Ltd, 29 Dover Street, London
  4. Date of death 1598 per History of Parliament biography ; Prince stated him to have died in 1622, p.337, apparently in error
  5. Punchard
  6. Devon Record Office, DRO 547B/188, sale particulars 1903
  7. Listed in Charles of London catalogue, 1927, per
  8. The William Randolph Hearst Archive: An Emerging Opportunity for Digital Art Research and Scholarship, Catherine Larkin, Long Island University, pp.1-2
  9. Screenplay Citizen Kane, spoken by The Narrator
  10. Kentucky New Era newspaper, Thursday 11 July, p.58
  11. Harris, John, Moving Rooms: the Trade in Architectural Salvages, London, 2007, p.24
  12. Louisville Courier-Journal online newspaper, February 5, 2016
  13. Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, whose members were invited to view the Grange by Kirstie Allsopp on 29 August 2009
  14. Summerley and Rittson Thomas, 2017, p. 12
  • Summerley, Victoria, and Rittson Thomas, Hugo (2017) The Secret Gardeners Francis Lincoln ISBN 9780711237636

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