Combe House

Combe House is a hotel, formerly the historic home of the Beaumont, Putt and Marker families. The Markers still own both Combe House and the surrounding Combe estate. The house has medieval origins and was extensively remodelled during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It is rendered with a slate roof and has various stacks, some with rendered shafts and others with renewed octagonal brick shafts featuring moulded cornices.

Plan and Development

The house is approximately H-shaped in plan and faces west. The late 17th-century hall occupies the centre block, with a small entrance hall to the right (south) and a 17th-century stair hall to the left (north). The south crosswing, which was heavily remodelled in the early 19th century, contains two principal rooms to the front including the former dining room, and a former kitchen to the rear. To the left of the main range, a front wing positioned at right angles is fitted out as the 18th-century morning room and may have been the medieval inner room. The north crosswing adjoins this wing and is unusual in that the front block is set at a slight angle. This contains a fine 18th-century parlour on the ground floor. The rear (east) section of this wing is not continuous with the angled block and is conventionally aligned with the rest of the house; it now functions as a service wing.

The development of the plan is complicated and discussed in detail by Christopher Hussey in his 1955 articles in Country Life. The medieval origins of the house are evident from an ogee-headed doorframe discovered in the north side partition of the present hall. Although the doorframe is no longer visible, it suggests that the late 17th-century hall is the result of successive remodellings of a medieval original. The house must have been substantial in the 16th century, since the Beaumonts are said to have "lived at Combe in great splendour and esteem for three generations" (Hussey, probably quoting Prince). The last Beaumont died in 1591. By this stage the hall had probably received the transomed windows and attic dormers shown on a survey plan of circa 1787, unless these alterations were carried out by Nicholas Putt, who bought Combe in 1615.

Major work including the remodelling of the hall and the construction of the fine staircase was undertaken by Sir Thomas Putt, described by one of the family as "an extravagant man" (Polwhele), who succeeded in 1605 and died in 1686. Late 18th-century refurbishment of very high quality in the two north-west wings is associated with Black Tom Putt, who succeeded in 1757. Three late 18th-century illustrations and a plan show the outlines of the house much as it is at present, before the conservative remodelling for the Reverend Thomas Putt who succeeded in 1812. He remodelled the south crosswing, added an extra storey to the hall range and introduced an open well stair behind the entrance hall, rejecting the plans for more extensive alterations which had been drawn up by Sir John Soane in 1805 for Reymundo Putt. The sash windows shown in the late 18th-century illustrations were mostly replaced and subsequently altered to stone mullioned windows in the late 19th century.

Exterior

The house is of two storeys with attics. The asymmetrical front comprises a one-bay section, then one-bay, then four bays, then one bay again—a four-bay main range flanked by the gable ends of the wings, with the angled wing at the extreme left. The gables, including two in the centre, are crowned by carved finials. An early 19th-century gabled Gothick porch stands to the right of centre, with diagonal buttresses featuring set-offs and large pinnacles. The exterior doorframe is ogee-headed and moulded with a hoodmould. The late 19th-century fenestration includes three ground floor three-light stone mullioned windows with two transoms, and four first floor two-light transomed mullioned windows with hoodmoulds. The window above the porch is blocked. There are 18th-century downpipes with rainwater heads.

The two flanking wings have set-back buttresses. The inner return of the north wing is blank, while the south wing has two blocked two-light mullioned windows with cusped heads. The gable ends of the wings have mullioned windows with hoodmoulds: four-light and transomed to the ground floor (blocked to the south wing), with similar but smaller four-light first floor windows, and two-light mullioned attic windows with hoodmoulds.

The angled outer north wing has a 19th-century parapet with a moulded cornice and a two-storey canted bay of at least 18th-century origins but with late 19th-century transomed and mullioned windows which descend to flank a Gothic-style Tudor arched doorway with a two-leaf door. The left (north) return of the north crosswing has a 19th-century porch, partly blocked in, to the side entrance and mostly 20th-century casements beyond.

The right return of the south crosswing is symmetrical to the west, and largely of early 19th-century form but with late 19th-century fenestration. It comprises five symmetrical bays to the left, gabled to the south on the left and right with left and right buttresses and a pair of buttresses flanking the centre bay. There are two-light transomed windows with hoodmoulds to the ground and first floors, and two-light attic windows with Tudor arches and chamfered frames. The service wing to the right is slightly set back and crowned with a bellcote, with a mixture of 19th-century and 20th-century sashes and casements. On the ground floor, an early 19th-century side entrance has a massive flat porch canopy on shaped brackets. A large, tall, round-headed window with original glazing bars lights the kitchen.

The rear elevation of the house has a variety of mostly 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars. A three-light pointed traceried window lights the stair hall. It is difficult to date: some of the masonry may be medieval but the tracery is unconventional and it is glazed with 18th-century painted glass. A glazed lantern to the main range lights the 19th-century stair well behind the entrance hall.

Interior

The interior is rich in 17th-century, 18th-century and 19th-century fittings. The late 17th-century hall is very fine, with bolection-moulded wainscot panelling and two-leaf doors at each end with splendid doorcases featuring broken pediments on consoles. The panelling incorporates a built-in case for a weight-actuated clock, with the weights enclosed in a fixed cupboard. The clock itself is missing. Hussey considers this "a probably unique transitional form between the hanging clock and the long-case or grandfather that replaced it in the last quarter of the 17th century" (Country Life, 16 June 1955, p. 1557). The massive bolection-moulded chimneypiece has an eared architrave and a bolection-moulded panel above flanked by Corinthian pilasters decorated with swags of fruit. Dutch-style tiles line the hearth. The ceiling is probably early 18th century, with moulded ribs in a panelled design enriched with floral motifs in roundels and a boldly-projecting dentil cornice with an egg-and-dart frieze.

The stair hall is also decorated with plaster panelling including round-headed niches. A grand open well stair of the late 17th century has a closed string, square-section newel posts crowned with vases of flowers, a flat-topped handrail and large turned balusters decorated with egg-and-dart and cable moulding. A two-leaf door to the hall has an eared architrave and cornice. The floor is probably original paving. The stair window contains 18th-century painted glass rather similar in character to a Peckitt design, with Gothick painted tracery.

The two west rooms in the north wings have 18th-century fittings and are linked by a passage at the west. The southern room has a circa 1760 Rococo plaster ceiling with a decorated cornice and frieze. The chimneypiece, of white marble with terms on the jambs, is probably 19th century. The northern room, set at a slight angle, has an exquisite Rococo chimneypiece described by Hussey as "a masterpiece of its genre". It incorporates an oval mirror. The lintel and jambs are marble, the lintel scalloped. The pine frame to the fireplace and the mirror is delicately carved with flowers, birds and a fox. Doorcases with broken pediments include friezes matching the chimneypiece, and the long-necked birds in the decorated plaster ceiling also seem to have been inspired by the chimneypiece. The ceiling has a central roundel with wreaths of pears, grapes and roses.

The two early 19th-century rooms in the south crosswing have marble chimneypieces, plaster cornices and Jacobean-style decorated ceilings, possibly in pressed paper. The former dining room to the right has oak and pine panelled wainscotting. The entrance hall has a boldly-projecting 18th-century dentil cornice, with a 19th-century open well top-lit stair behind featuring turned balusters. The old kitchen at the east end of the south wing retains an early 19th-century kitchen fireplace.

Several rooms on the first floor have good cornices, bolection-moulded dados and late 17th-century and later chimneypieces. Brick-vaulted cellars survive below the south crosswing.

Roof

Partially inspected. Trusses seen over the main range and south crosswing are of early 19th-century character, but early timbers may survive in the north wings.

Significance

This is an outstanding country house with high quality interior features. It has group value with associated buildings. The gardens at Combe are Grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.