Tonacombe Manor

Tonacombe Manor is an outstanding late medieval manor house of Grade I importance, preserving its open hall and many other features substantially intact.

The building has an early 16th-century core, with late 16th-century refurbishment, early 18th-century additions, and a 20th-century extension. It is constructed of stone rubble with slate roofs featuring gable ends, polyphant and granite dressings, and local brick chimneys, some later repaired with 19th or 20th-century brick.

The early 16th-century plan was likely a double courtyard arrangement with a main range of three rooms and a through passage. The through passage led to an unheated room at the lower end and an open hall and heated parlour at the higher end, with the hall heated by a rear lateral stack and the parlour by another. Evidence suggests a kitchen wing to the rear of the lower end room. A second, smaller parlour with a solar above was formerly reached by a newel stair to the rear of the large parlour. A rear range, demolished in the 19th century, is said to have contained heated rooms and may have been a service range, possibly contemporary with the main range. Parallel to the front of the main range is a narrow two-storey south range containing a gatehouse, porter's lodge, and service rooms, forming a narrow south courtyard at the front of the main range. This south range is probably contemporary with the main range. Late 16th-century refurbishment updated the interior. Two parlours were added to the rear right of the main range, probably in the early 18th century, re-using some granite dressings from the earlier build. Walls surrounding the house on all sides, forming a pleasaunce to the east, a carriageway to the south known as "the street", and a lower courtyard to the west are likely to be of 17th-century or earlier origin, though renovated in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 18th-century renovation probably incorporated materials from Stowe, dismantled circa 1739. In the 18th century the kitchen wing was remodelled as a separate building to the rear left. A 20th-century addition to the rear of the small parlour wing has a roof with a hipped end.

The outer walls and gatehouse range give Tonacombe Manor a fortified appearance. The gatehouse range is entered through a chamfered elliptical arched granite doorway with a door of studded moulded cover strips incorporating an inserted wicket. The gatehouse chamber is entered from the south courtyard up a flight of stone steps in a lean-to projection with a massive granite monolith used as a jamb.

The asymmetrical south front of the main range is two storeys to the left of the front door, with an open hall to the right. An off-centre chamfered arched doorway on the front to the left is set under a slated canopy carried on carved granite corbels and a granite lintel; the corbels are carved with heads. To the left of the door is a three-light stone mullioned window, and above are first-floor windows: one three-light stone mullioned window under a moulded lintel, and one similar two-light window. The two hall windows are each three-light granite mullioned windows with hollow-chamfered arched lights. Throughout the house, leaded panes follow a 19th-century pattern.

The east front of the house, facing the pleasaunce, has enlarged circa early 20th-century three-light mullioned windows to the east gable end of the main range under concrete lintels. A gabled circa early 18th-century stair projection has a circa early 19th-century eight-pane sash. Stone mullioned windows light the parlour wing.

The interior contains an open hall with a gallery at the west end, comprising five bays of moulded arched brace trusses with slightly cambered collars and two tiers of threaded purlins. The trusses are reinforced with metal ties. A moulded square-headed stone fireplace, probably originally with a chimneypiece, is present. The screens gallery was formerly reached by a newel stair and now has a timber stair. The partition wall of the screens passage has heavily-moulded verticals. The east end of the hall features 1578 wainscot panelling terminating in a frieze below a moulded cornice, with frieze divisions formed by fluted pilasters. This panelling was brought from a bedroom beyond the gallery in the mid 19th century when the gallery was opened up.

An early 18th-century moulded timber pediment crowns the doorway into the parlour. The parlour contains massive moulded cross beams and moulded joists of the early 16th century; its walls are panelled throughout with late 16th-century panelling of similar design to that in the bedroom overlooking the pleasaunce. The parlour frieze contains armorial bearings.

The early 18th-century stair in the stair projection has turned balusters and a moulded handrail. The bedroom above the small parlour has a canted ceiling and is panelled throughout with late 16th-century panelling. It retains a sleeping recess and contemporary cupboards. The bedroom over the lower end of the main range displays first-quality panelling dated 1578, a contemporary panelled bed recess, and applewood inlay to cupboard doors.

Two roof trusses span the lower end of the main range: the westernmost is an arched brace without mouldings, whilst the easternmost, without braces, has a cambered collar. The roofspace over the east end of the gatehouse range features a collar rafter roof with collars mortised into principals and trenched purlins.

The "Blue Parlour" to the north of the main range has sash windows and bolection-moulded panelling.

Tonacombe Manor has remained in the hands of one family since the early 16th century. The main build may date from the marriage between Thomasin Jourden of Tonacombe and John Kempthorne in the early 16th century. The manor passed through the female line to the Waddons in the mid 17th century and to the Martyns in the late 18th century. Dennis Waddon (1697–1764) was land agent to the Grenville lands in Cornwall from about 1739, during the period just after Stowe, the Grenville house in Kilkhampton parish, was dismantled. It is possible that materials from Stowe were used at Tonacombe. The house has remained very little altered since Christopher Hussey's article in Country Life of 11 November 1933.