Description:
Despite the inscription 'Trowell Moor Farm' on this drawing, we are looking here at the quadrangle of Staple Inn, one of the Inns of Court in London. The building dates from 1585 and is the last surviving Inn of Chancery, being attached originally to Gray's Inn. While it escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666, it was badly damaged by a German aerial bomb in 1944, but was subsequently restored. The Trowell connection may possibly stem from this being an illustration drawn at the head of a letter and that the inscription at the top is actually the address of the sender of the letter (presumably William Stevenson) and not a caption to the drawing.
Picture the Past is grateful to website contributor Keith Goodman for pointing out that this is not Trowell Moor Farm. He adds: 'It is slightly complicated partly because of artistic licence and partly because what you see today is reconstruction after bomb damage ... I understand that they were a bit selective in what they rebuilt and may have gone back in history and rebuilt nice bits that had been altered by later additions. Whatever, it is clearly Staple Inn [in London] and not some exciting undiscovered building in Trowell. Pity really!'