Description

HACCOMBE-WITH-COMBE COMBEINTEIGNHEAD
SX 90 71

16/93 Church House
(formerly listed as Old Almshouses)
23.8.55

GV II*

Church house. Probably built shortly after 1530, the date of a grant of a piece of
land from John Bourghchyre "on which is to be built a house which must be a church
house". First floor converted to flats and eaves raised in 1977. Red sandstone,
partly large blocks brought to course, partly rubblestone. Slate roof (formerly
thatched), gabled at ends ; no existing stack.
Plan: Single depth rectangular plan, the ground floor consisting of a large room to
the left with an entrance on the front at the left and a narrow service room at the
right end with a separate entrance. First floor altered for conversion to flats but
was one large room. The building has served several different purposes from
poorhouse to bakehouse and schoolroom.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front with a stone eaves cornice
(slightly below the eaves since the raising of the roof) and a second cornice or
dripmould at sill level of the first floor windows. The doorway into the main ground
floor room at the left is set high in the wall and presumably had steps up. Fine
moulded oak doorframe with carved spandrels and a plank and stud door with large
strap hinges. The door to the service room has steps up and a chamfered doorframe
with a slightly cambered lintel. To the left of this a fine 4-light window with a
moulded frame and mullions and hollow-chamfered segmental-headed lights with carved
spandrels, iron stanchions and saddle bars, the window is unglazed with modern
glazing on the inner face of the wall. A smaller, plainer, mullioned window to the
left, also unglazed, has 2 lights with chamfered frames and peaked heads. 2 C20 3-
light windows with arched lights to the first floor, similar windows to each end
wall.
Interior: Ground floor only inspected. Massive chamfered cross beams with additional
support at the junction with the walls ; plank and muntin screen dividing main room
from service room, the muntins roll-moulded towards the main room.
A probably C19 plaque, temporarily removed, states 'this building was erected and
presented to the Parish as an Almshouse, by William Bourchier 3rd Earl of Bath, A.D.
1620'.
Copeland refers to "a modern elliptical-headed wooden doorway as the entrance to the
upper chamber" in the right (south) end wall and a renewed "timber and plaster" roof.
Brick chimney stacks, which no longer exist, were described as 'restorations'; the
first floor fireplace in the east (rear), wall of the first floor was described as
"quite modern" and the ground floor left end fireplace as "relatively small and plain
segmental-headed". The lower floor is said to have been used as a brewery, the upper
floor for meetings. From about 1810 until 1856 it was used as an almshouse. The
brewing equipment was sold off at about this time and the lower floor was let as 2
dwellings. The upper floor was used as a schoolroom between 1789 and 1932.
An important example of a church house with high quality C16 carpentry intact.

Thorne, J.O. The Church House, Combeinteignhead, Historical Notes (n.d.).

Thorne, J.O. New Light on Combe Church House, Combeinteignhead Parish Magazine.
Copeland, G.W. 'Devonshire Church Houses : T.D.A, vol. XCV (1963), pp. 142-143.

Listing NGR: SX9019771586

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534957

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)