Brunel Woods:

Part of the John Musgrove HeritageTrail.

A coastal walk through 35 miles of South Devon.

Managed by The Coast and Countryside Trust.

Brunel Manor 

A magnificent manor house set amid 12 acres of gardens and woodlands.

A small area of land in Brunel Manor Watcombe is where pupils from Coombe Pafford School learn about horticulture as part of their curriculum. The school caters for pupils who have moderate learning difficulties, physical difficulties or autism. Andy the manor gardener who has created enthusiasm among the pupils on how to grow their own food and flowers leads the joint project between the school and Brunel Manor.

Additional funds received from TOFFY, for this successful project, which enabled the purchasing of a Polly tunnel where pupils can either sit and write or be hands on gardeners no matter the weather. Many thousands of plants grown from seeds or cuttings sold and the funds shared between the restoration of the manor gardens and the development of horticultural lessons at the school.

(TOFFY Torbay Opportunities Fund for Youth grants for groups, individuals who organise activities for young people to help them achieve and enjoy life in the Bay)

The vegetable garden is very popular and the produce eagerly sought after by the pupils to take home and eat, especially the strawberries!

The pupils have cultivated Euonymus Emerald and Gold cuttings for the beds either side of the seaward facing pond in the gardens. These have been planted out in a double scroll design; Lavender fills the gaps for the Parterre garden (level surface clipped hedging planting) as part of the ongoing garden restoration project to bring the gardens back to their former glory see: article below.
 
Work on landscaping and planting a new home for the rose garden in Brunel Manor is being carried out by pupils from Ratcliff Special School Dawlish as part of their lessons.

A Brief History of Brunel Manor

ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL was one of this country's greatest engineers; born at the beginning of the 19th Century, he died in 1859 at the age of 53 and during the course of that life-time exercised his talents in a variety of fields. His father was also a great engineer and with him he the first tunnel under the River Thames, which even today is part of the London underground system. As a result of working there, he was taken ill and moved to Bristol for convalescence.

Whilst working in this part of the country on his railway systems, he incorporated the Atmospheric Railway which uses the pressure of the atmosphere as a propelling force in a tube between the rails instead of steam being generated in a mobile engine. The remains of this can still be seen at Starcross (where a Brunel Museum now occupies the old atmospheric pumping station), Dawlish and Torquay (where a pumping tower still remains in reasonable condition alongside the line railway 200 yards north of Lawes Bridge).

Whilst staying down here, he collected together, between 1847 and 1858, one hundred acres to build himself a villa for his retirement. That land consisted of what is still the present grounds Brunel Manor, together with the land which has now developed into the Brunel Park housing and the public park and roads to the south of our land and known as Brunel Woods.

Westwards the estate extended to Peasland Cottage which used to stand at the lower end of Peasland Road. Brunel chose the site because of its superb outlook across Torbay and its proximity to Teignmouth and Newton-Abbot railway termini which were, at that time, the end of his railway line from Bristol.

He planned and planted an avenue of trees which was to connect the property to Newton Abbot via the crest of Great Hill to Barton Cross. When he bought the site the old Teignmouth-Torbay road went right through the centre of it, so he diverted it to the new turnpike and then built a bridge to connect the land he owned either side of the road.

He carefully landscaped the Manor grounds under the guidance of William Nesfield -the most famous garden designer of his day. He constructed a series of water gardens through the valley and planted many varieties of quite rare trees from all around 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 lo design. Burn was the most exclusive house architect of the day and a copy of his original design is on display; the original is kept in the R.I.B.A. library. Whilst supervising the work he rented the house opposite, which formed part of the old Maidencombe House Hotel, now demolished. Brunel died before the building work could 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. Crompon was a very wealthy paper manufacturer, owning extensive mills near Burv in Lancaster. It was Mr. Compton 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.

We still have in our possession some of the architect's original drawings and plans for Mr. Compton's mansion. Mr. Crompton added to the estate considerably by purchasing further land which extended the border south to Moor Lane and north to Claddon Lane together with common grazing rights eastward to the coast including the Valley of the Rocks He called his home and estate Watcombe Park.

By this time 17 years had passed since Brunels death in 1859 and in 1876 the whole estate changed hands again for the sum of £22,900. For this princely sum Lt. Cal. Charles Ichabold Wright of Stableford Hill, Nottingham purchased not only the Manor with its large stable block (now the Hayloft) and Brunel Lodge, but also twelve other dwelling houses and cottages on the total of five hundred acres of land.

The house remained in the ownership of the Wright family for several years being the subject of a lengthy legal battle within the family which lasted from 1902-1907 Brunel Manor 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 Rousdon in East Devon.

When ownership of the property was eventually resolved, some small parts of the estate were sold separately, but the bulk of it was sold for £1 5.000 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 what is now known as the Rodenhurst Room was added, the purpose of which was probably to act as room for formal functions, balls, banquets etc. Originally the room went from floor level to the apex of the beam roof; the floor of 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 £17500 in 1923 and moved to Henley-on- Thames where he died in 1935 leaving Sir Thomas Edwards Moss, his son, to inherit the baronetcy. The present holder of the title is Sir John Herbert Edwards Moss. Mr. Lund disposed of large portions of the land, some of which eventually went to the Torquay Corporation, 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 Hayloft) had soldiers billeted in it, but the Lodge, which had also been sold off to private owners, continued as a guest house, We have had several guests staying with us who were students here during the war years with Stockwell College.

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.

Recent alterations and additions to the Manor carried out by the trust include the building of 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 en-suite bedrooms.

Irrespective of to this human ownership and 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.

A Brief History text courtesy of Woodlands House of Prayer Trust.