A Home That Inspired a Turner Painting Listed for $2 million

Brendan and Celia Wilson’s home is museum quality. as British Broadcasting Corporation Their Grade II listed home, Rossett Mill, in Wrexham, Wales, reportedly dates from 1588 and inspired JMW Turner’s early paintings.

The Wilsons first saw the water mill 17 years ago when it was boarded up, uninhabitable and slated for demolition. A newspaper ad initially caught their attention and a chance drive through the area soon sealed their fate.

“We knew within five minutes we wanted to buy it,” Brendan Wilson told the outlet British Broadcasting Corporation. They purchased the property for £660,000 and began a meticulous two-year restoration costing around £250,000, transforming the derelict building into a four-bedroom home with multiple reception rooms, while retaining its historic character.

To maintain the integrity of the mill, the couple sourced reclaimed oak beams from a barn in France and carefully integrated modern comforts such as central heating and a new kitchen. Brendan says the change of seasons remains one of the joys of living there: winters spent by the fire, summers picnicking along the shallow River Alyn, which flows beneath the watermill and through the surrounding trees.

The mill itself is still in operation. The downflush waterwheel, powered by the water flowing beneath it, continued to grind corn, and the deed to the property included an ancient right that allowed the owners to pump water from the river to operate the machinery. Brendan, who taught himself to run the plant using books and online resources, admits it was nerve-wracking the first time he tried it, although it now runs smoothly a few times a year.

Turner’s structural painting titled marford mill (1795), was taken during one of several trips to Wales. Nicola Moorby, curator of Historic British Art at Tate Britain, said Turner was attracted to the sites because of their picturesque qualities and layered social history. His Welsh themes helped him develop the technical ambition and philosophical depth that have come to define his work, which often emphasizes nature’s endurance against the fleeting presence of human life.

Fifteen years later, the Wilsons are now selling Rossett Mill for £1.5 million ($2 million) so they can move closer to their children. “We will be sad to leave,” Celia Wilson said, “but now is the time.” As Brendan says, “There’s history in every corner of this building. We just happened to be the first people to live in it.”