Tennis Court At Combe Abbey

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 02/10/2012

SP47NW 1641-0/6/10003 24/07/92

COMBE FIELDS COMBE ABBEY Tennis Court at Combe Abbey

GV II*

Former tennis court. c1820 or possibly earlier C19. Red brick (one end wall rendered) with Welsh slate hipped roof. High single storey. Later entrance doors in rendered wall with C20 sliding doors on long wall to left. On both long walls are recessed blank panels with gauged brick flat arches. Above running full length are horizontal sliding sash windows, with glazing bars, cantilevered out and forming galleries. Blocked windows and C20door on rear wall. INTERIOR: The walls are lined in slate, possibly from Lord Penrhyn's quarry at Penrhyn, where Benjamin Wyatt was agent. Samuel Wyatt used slate in this way, which he called 'patent slating'. It is therefore thought that the Wyatts might have designed this tennis court. The penthouses have been demolished but the tambour remains. Roof has C20 suspended ceiling but is reported as being of queen-post type, cross-strutted, and of pine. A plan of 1811 shows a rectangular structure on this site though with different proportions. Noel and Clarke state that it was completed about 1820 and that it was one of the first glazed in England.

Listing NGR: SP4038079808