Woodway House

Woodway had formerly been a farm, originally constructed in the form of a Devon longhouse until Captain James Spratt built the large cob and thatch cottage on the front in around 1815. A mansion house on the lower boundary of the Woodway grounds was known as Gorway. Demolished in the 1970s, it was named after the Norman baron, Serlo de la Gore. Woodway would have been part of its feudal holdings and could have been the home farm. Gorway's large stables, gate house and coach house survived and were for many years used by a company that maintained garden machinery. The owners of "Woodway" Farm, at this time probably known as Leafield (1890 OS map), prior to the Spratts were the Brimage family…

Woodway House shows three clear phases of construction, with the cottage orné of the early 19th century, the old farm buildings and the tutor's living quarters and a classroom, built before 1825. James Spratt had three sons and six daughters, making home tuition both economical and appropriate. The identifiable remains of the old farm buildings consist firstly of a barn with a hay loft that collapsed in a gale and was demolished in the 1960s. A cobbled courtyard with a deep well, granite trough and pump surrounded by outbuildings which include an upper story which had a ladder running up to it, probably for access to the stable hand's dwelling. Another pump was located inside the side wing…

Following a severe bout of malaria Thomas Spratt was given home sick-leave. As a result, he was able to spend the years 1848-49 studying the movements of the Bar sands at Teignmouth and published a book on the subject, dedicated to Sir William Reid, Governor of Malta. The book was entitled An Investigation of the Movements of the Teignmouth Bar and he gave all his data to the Teignmouth Harbour Commission. At this time the commission were struggling to relieve the local trade from an unjust tax, levied annually by the town of Exeter. Mr. Bell an assistant engineer on the South Devon Railway spent some months confirming the accuracy of Spratt's observations. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had…