Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14 January 2026 to update the Name and Address and reformat the text to current standards

SX8751
673-1/5/211

DARTMOUTH
RIDGE HILL (South side)
No 31 (Combecote) and Hill House and attached gateway

(Formerly listed as No.31 Combecote, Altamira and attached gateway)

II

Large house, now divided into two parts. Mid/late C18, with some superficial modernisation in the 1840s and a modernisation and extension from around the 1860s. According to the owners it was the town house of the Newman family. Plastered stone rubble, exposed to rear; end, axial and rear lateral stacks with plastered brick chimneyshafts, some with pots; slate roof with alternate crested ridge tiles.

PLAN: two parallel ranges, two rooms wide with central cross passage, double-depth plan. The house was superficially modernised, probably in the 1840s, and then, around the 1860s, the right end was altered. The principal parlour was enlarged and the extension given an end stack; a new entrance created this end with a porch behind the parlour extension. The stairwell was thus enlarged, and refurbished to create an impressive entrance hall. The old back doorway to the passage was evidently reduced to service use.

EXTERIOR: two storeys with attics; 5:3-window garden front. The left five-window section is the C18 house as modernised in the 1840s, and the actual windows, all horned sashes without glazing bars, from the 1860s or even later. All first-floor windows have stucco Tudor-style hoodmoulds. Central round-headed doorway with a simple pedimented flat stucco surround now contains a recessed C20 part-glazed door under a plain fanlight. Plat band at first-floor level and moulded eaves cornice to parapet. Twin roofs are gable-ended with tall coping.

Front right end three-window section from the 1860s; a canted bay containing sashes without glazing bars, the front ground-floor one is full height. Stucco plat band with moulded cornice at first-floor level and first-floor windows have a continuous sill; they interrupt a moulded string course, and above Tudor arches rise into a flat eaves band. Same style is continued round the right end to the entrance porch; large double two-panel doors under an overlight. Windows with shallow hoodmoulds including the triangular-headed windows in the end gables. Rear wall (to the street) includes a round-headed C18 doorway to the passage; timber doorcase with pilasters to fluted brackets carrying an open-pediment hood, it contains a part-glazed six-panel door under a plain fanlight. Also some horned 12-pane sashes. The rear doorway is now from a service courtyard enclosed by low service buildings.

INTERIOR: A great deal of C18 and C19 detail, including the 1860s entrance hall floored with a chequer pattern of red and black tiles. Large open-well stair top-lit by a cupola containing some coloured glass, and has large newel posts with truncated pyramid finials and turned balusters. The main parlour (front right) has an C18 Adam-style chimneypiece and the arch knocked through to the C19 extension supported on large columns of red marble with grey marble bases and capitals. Plaster cornice is the same throughout the front rooms and may be C18. Other C18 and C19 joinery and other features around the house. Roof not inspected.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Front gateway: the stone rubble boundary wall to the street is plastered as it curves into and ramps up to the square-section gate piers with pineapple finials. Gateway probably dates from the 1860s phase.

Listing NGR: SX8765851615

External Links

• Wikidata Q26580348

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)