Was this the house that Lawrence called Marsh Farm in The Rainbow, the home of the Brangwen family? The photo is taken from his sister Ada's book about DHL, and is labelled 'Marsh Farm'. Other sources say that his model was called Aqueduct House, named for the nearby canal aqueduct. It was apparently right beside the canal embankment, and the building was demolished and replaced by the current bungalow called 'Pipswood'.
Given that Lawrence almost always portrayed real places, this raises two questions. Does the picture show the building that occupied this site in the late nineteenth century? According to Harry Moore, it was 'an old stone farm', which had been lived in for two centuries by the Fritchley family. But the 1901 census for Cossall only lists one Fritchley in the village, who was living with his in-laws.
The second question is why Lawrence chose this place for a key role in what is arguably his finest novel. Although it does correspond to the setting described in the book, the location today seems too cramped and hemmed-in for the drama he creates. It would be good to know whether he had any links with the family at the real-life farm, or if he simply chose this spot to allow for a convincing flood in chapter IX?
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