The Sulham statue of Cain and Abel.

 The Lead Statue of Cain and Abel. 

By Mosshall Woods, Sulham, Purley on Thames, Berkshire.

Rupert Gunnis states by Andries Carpentier (Andrew Carpenter d.1737).

Posted so that there is no confusion with the statues of Samson and the Philistine.

The statue was stolen c. 1969.

Presumed melted down for the value of the lead.

The first reference to the statue is in 1720. Francis Hawes, one of the Directors of the South Seas company, had just purchased Purley Hall and asked Charles Bridgeman to lay out the gardens. Bridgeman, who in 1728 was to become Royal Gardener to George II, prepared a plan, in the bottom right hand corner of which there is the following note: 

Entrance of the Wood above the ground floor of the House 58 feet. Centre of the Wood at the Hercules & Antaeus above the Entrance of the Wood 34 feet...........

see -

https://project-purley.net/R200220.pdf

https://project-purley.net/R200209.pdf

Image from Reading Local Studies Library.

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Purley Hall with the statue of Samson and the Philistine.

It occurs to me that the YCBA Samson slaying the Philistine (provenance a "private collection") could be the same statue.That saying I'm sure that there are further examples that havn't been accounted for!

The composition relates closely to an equally primitive oil on canvas (66 x 86cm), in a private collection which is illustrated in John Harris, 'The Artist and Country House', London 1979, No. 417, P.363. The Reverend Dr Henry Wilder purchased Purley Hall in 1778 and let it to Warren Hastings, a former Governor of India, while he awaited trial. Hastings is said to have spent the three years here fattening prize cattle, riding Arab horses, rearing Tibetan goats and cattle of Bhutan.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/11166/lot/284/

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Purley Hall with the statue of Samson and the Philistine.

Watercolour drawing at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

by Francis James Sarjent.

c.1800.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O767428/purley-hall-watercolour-drawing-sarjent-francis-james/

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Another view of Purley Hall.

Francis Cotes .

V and A.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O56628/purley-hall-berkshire-watercolour-cotes-francis/

Francis Hyde built Purley Hall (formerly known as Hyde Hall) in 1609. The estate was sold c 1720 for £14,000 by Hyde's grandson, also Francis, to Francis Hawes, a Director of the South SeaCompany and Cashier to the Customs. 

Hawes employed Charles Bridgeman (d 1738) c 1720-1 to produce a design for the garden, and a record dated March 1721 exists for `Mr Bridgeman his bill for laying out the gardens at Purley, £122 11s 0d', together with his design (Bodleian Library), and records of substantial payments for plants, and ornamental and fruit trees (CL 1970). 

Bridgeman's plan was carried out, although seemingly in modified form (Ballard, 1758). 

In 1720 the `South Sea Bubble' burst. Hawes, as one of the responsible directors, had his assets seized early in 1721, and the Purley Hall estate was put up for sale, to be bought back by his younger brother, Thomas, probably for the low price of £1080. 

The garden retained its formal layout during the mid C18 (Ballard, 1758; Rocque, 1761), remaining in the Hawes family until c 1770 when it was sold to the Wilder family.

The Government rented the Hall for Warren Hastings during his impeachment by Parliament in the1780s, a painting of c 1785 (Harris 1979) depicting the Hall and its environs, populated with the Indian livestock which Hastings kept at Purley. 

During the C20 the Hall was leased, remaining empty during the Second World War, and was sold by the descendants of the Wilders in 1961. 

A period of restoration in the garden took place during the 1980s, under the auspices of the ownersMajor and Mrs Bradley. At this time the east arm of the canal was restored, having been filled in c 1818 (CL 1970), and the gateway arch was rebuilt. 

The Hall remains (1998) in private ownership, separate from the park and majority of the walled garden, which are also in private hands.

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Lawrence Weaver in English Leadwork pub.1909 states there was a kneeling slave sundial in the garden at Purley Hall. Another attributed to Carpenter was supplied to Dunham Massey.

The original is that made by John Nost I.

https://ia801600.us.archive.org/15/items/englishleadworki00weav/englishleadworki00weav.pdf