Bradwell Lodge
Bradwell Lodge is a country house in the village of Bradwell-on-Sea, on the Dengie Peninsula in Essex, England. Originally a Tudor rectory, in the 18th century the house was purchased by the Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley. Bate Dudley engaged John Johnson, Surveyor of the County of Essex, to build a large Neoclassical extension. In the 20th century, the lodge was the home of Tom Driberg. Bradwell remains a private residence. It is a Grade II* listed building.
| Bradwell Lodge | |
|---|---|
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| Type | House |
| Location | Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex |
| Coordinates | 51.7237°N 0.9014°E |
| Built | Tudor, Neoclassical extension c. 1785, 21st century portico |
| Architect | John Johnson, 18th century, Quinlan Terry, 21st century |
| Governing body | Privately owned |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Bradwell Lodge |
| Designated | 10 January 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1337401 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Former Coach House and Stables 30M north of Bradwell Lodge |
| Designated | 5 August 1986 |
| Reference no. | 1308762 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Walled Garden 50M northeast of Bradwell Lodge |
| Designated | 7 December 1977 |
| Reference no. | 1110944 |
  Location of Bradwell Lodge in Essex | |
History
Bradwell Lodge stands close to the Church of St Thomas in the village of Bradwell-on-Sea.[1] The origins of the house are a moated manor house dating from Tudor times.[2][lower-alpha 1] By the 18th century the lodge had become the village rectory. In the later half of that century, the lodge was bought by the Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley (1745-1824), a Church of England minister.[2][lower-alpha 2] In addition to his religious duties, Bate Dudley edited one newspaper, the Morning Post and ran another, the Morning Herald, courting controversy and enduring imprisonment as the "most notorious editor in London."[3] He wrote plays and was a close friend of both the actor David Garrick and the artist Thomas Gainsborough, who twice painted his portrait.[4] He was also a famous duellist, gaining the nickname, "The Fighting Parson".[5][lower-alpha 3]
Between 1781 and 1786 Bate Dudley engaged John Johnson (1732-1814) to embellish the original manor house with a large extension to the south side.[6] Johnson held the post of Surveyor of the County of Essex and was a prolific architect of country houses and public buildings throughout the county, as well as a number of aristocratic townhouses in London.[6]
In 1939, the lodge was purchased by Tom Driberg.[7][lower-alpha 4] Driberg had made his name as the gossip columnist William Hickey in the Daily Express and in 1942 was elected member of parliament for Maldon, the Essex constituency in which Bradwell lodge was sited. The house was unavailable to him during the Second World War as it was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force to serve as an officers' mess for the nearby RAF Bradwell Bay.[9] Driberg returned to the lodge after the war and brought his new wife, Ena Mary Binfield, there in 1951. Their marriage had surprised Driberg's friends and connections as he was openly homosexual; some suspected that the partnership was in part to provide cover for his sexual orientation, as well as a chatelaine for his substantial country house.[10][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6]
The grounds contain a rare Ginkgo biloba tree presented to Driberg when Chairman of the Labour Party by the Premier of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai.[12] In 1976 Driberg was elevated to the peerage as Baron Bradwell of Bradwell juxta Mare in the County of Essex.[13] He died three weeks later and is buried in the graveyard of St Thomas's Church, near to the lodge.[14] Bradwell Lodge remains a private residence,[15] and has been sold on a number of occasions in the 21st century.[12][16]
Architecture and description
Bradwell Lodge is formed of two main structures, the remnant of the original Tudor manor house, and the 18th-century block added by Bate Dudley. The former is a two-storey building of timber and brick.[2] The latter is again of two-storeys but of a "clearly metropolitan" Neoclassical style.[1] The interior contains decoration in the style of Angelica Kaufman and other elements were undertaken by Robert Smirke. John Bettley, in his 2007 Essex volume of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, also notes the traditional attribution of parts of the interior design scheme to Robert Adam but states that there is no documentary evidence to support the claim. A portico on the south front was added by Quinlan Terry in 2005. The Georgian extension is topped with a belvedere.[1]
Bradwell Lodge is a Grade II* listed building.[2] The walled garden and the former coach house and stables are listed Grade II.[17][18]
Footnotes
- Historic England, in their listing record for the lodge, give a rather imprecise date for the original construction of the 15th or 16th centuries.[2]
- The name, Bate Dudley, is sometimes hyphenated to Bate-Dudley.
- In 1781 Bate Dudley was imprisoned for a year for libelling the Duke of Richmond.[5]
- The lodge had previously been viewed, and rejected, by the American socialite and politician Henry “Chips” Channon.[8]
- On seeing a photograph of Ena at the time the couple's engagement was announced, Winston Churchill is reported to have remarked; "buggers can't be choosers".[10]
- On another occasion Churchill, not usually given to censoriousness, described Driberg as “the sort of man who gives sodomy a bad name.”[11]
References
- Bettley & Pevsner 2007, p. 166.
- Historic England. "Bradwell Lodge (Grade II*) (1337401)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Ferrero, Bonnie (1 December 2005). "The Morning Herald and its First Three Editors". Media History. 11 (3): 165–175. doi:10.1080/13688800500323865. S2CID 143969768. Retrieved 11 September 2022 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
- "'The Rev. Sir Henry Bate-Dudley, Bart', Thomas Gainsborough, c.1780". Tate Gallery. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- "Dudley, Henry Bate (DNB00)". Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Colvin 1978, pp. 462–463.
- Massey, Paul (16 November 2020). "This Neoclassical pavilion is the perfect English country house in miniature". House & Garden. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Channon 2021, p. 670.
- Nunn, Stephen (11 July 2021). "How country house played its part in the war effort". Maldon and Burnham Standard. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- "Gossip and gunshot". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Reynolds 2019, p. 227.
- "Bradwell Lodge" (PDF). Onthemarket.com. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- "No. 46803". The London Gazette. 20 January 1976. p. 919.
- Nunn, Stephen (9 May 2021). "All walks of life rubbing shoulders in graveyard". Maldon and Burnham Standard. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- "Bradwell Lodge". DiCamillo. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Beckett, Matthew (15 May 2012). "Bradwell Lodge". The Country Seat. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Historic England. "Walled Garden 50M northeast of Bradwell Lodge (Grade II) (1110944)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
- Historic England. "Former Coach House and Stables 30M north of Bradwell Lodge (Grade II) (1308762)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
Sources
- Bettley, James; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2007). Essex. The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11614-4. OCLC 1042848015.
- Channon, Henry (2021). Simon Heffer (ed.). Henry "Chips" Channon - The Diaries: 1918-1938. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-1-786-33181-6. OCLC 1130667674.
- Colvin, Howard (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840. London, UK: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-719-53328-0.
- Plater, Jill (2008). "Bradwell Lodge (formerly the rectory)" (PDF). Essex Gardens Trust.
- Reynolds, Peter (2019). The Children of Harvey Milk: How LGBTQ Politicians Changed the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-190-46095-2.