Comstock, Francis Adams. TURKDEAN MANOR, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. Lithograph, circa 1953. Edition of 75, signed, titled, dated and numbered 31/75 in pencil. 9 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches, 235 x 343 mm. In excellent condition. Comstock (1897-1981) taught architecture at Yale, served as the Director of the Newport, RI Preservation Foundation, wrote the catalogues raisonne on the prints of both F. L. Griggs and Thomas Nason, and was a highly regarded printmaker, working mainly in lithography. This is one of a series of lithographs that Comstock did of historic homes in the Cotswold villages of Gloucestershire. The following is some information about Turkdean Manor, located in the village of Turkdean: Robert d'Oilgie's Doomsday ownership linked Turkdean, alongside Little Rissington, with the 'honour' of Wallingford and through this attachment subsequently with Ewelme, but the manor lands had passed to the de Tormions by the end of the 12th century and thence to the Bassets before moving on to the Paulton family who retained it through the 14th century until it was acquired by the college of Westbury-on-Trymm sometime before 1509. Confiscated from the college at Dissolution, the manor was then granted to Sir Ralph Sadler, later Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in 1544. However, ownership passed to the Baynstree ('Bannister') family in 1586 when, most probably, reconstruction of the Manor house was undertaken. The Bannisters remained owners of the Turkdean manor through the 17th century and were among the longer-lasting families to own the estate, but they sold their Turkdean and Hazleton lands to the Waller family (from Beaconsfield) in 1725 who also acquired land in Farmington which they retained when they sold their Turkdean land to the Willan family in 1799. The manor estate was basically reassembled under the ownership of W.A. Rixon (William Augustus), who bought much of Turkdean between 1902 and 1912. It was in 1905, under Rixon's ownership, that the manor house was upgraded from the farmhouse it had sturdily remained through successive ownerships into something somewhat grander. After Rixon's death in 1948 the manor house and its estate were separated, with the land then farmed by Geoffrey Milne until 1958 when a large portion of the land was taken on by the Mustoe family who continue to farm it today. Meanwhile the house passed through successive owners until, in 1999,
