Spence Combe Farmhouse Including 2 Adjoining Cob Garden Walls To South

Farmhouse. Mid-16th century, modernised and extended in the late 17th century and again around 1880. Plastered cob and rubble construction with volcanic stone and brick stacks; wheat reed thatched roof.

The building is L-shaped, with the main block facing south. It originally had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with an inner room at the left (west) end, and a 17th-century rear block positioned at right angles behind the inner room. The main block has gable end stacks and an axial hall stack backing onto the former passage, while the rear block has an inner lateral stack. Around 1880, the passage was removed when a new fireplace was built to service the room that had backed onto the hall stack; at the same time, a new entrance hall was created at the upper end of the hall, with a 2-storey gabled porch to the rear.

The farmhouse is 2 storeys throughout. The south-facing front has 6 windows and a doorway positioned left of centre, dating from around 1880. The door head is glazed with margin panes and 2 panels below, with glazing bars, panelled reveals, an overlight doorcase with incised pilasters and moulded entablature. Adjacent to the right is a contemporary canted bay window with large pane sashes with margin panes. Other ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes; the window to the right of the bay is blind with painted glazing, marking the site of the original through-passage door.

All 6 first-floor windows are late 17th-century timber mullion-and-upper-transom windows with flat faces and glazing rebates, with internal shallow ogee mouldings. All contain leaded rectangular panes; most have 2 iron stanchions per fixed light, and some retain original iron casements with 4 horizontal bars and catches. The stack projecting from the left (west) end has an exposed volcanic ashlar stack and chimney shaft. Behind, the rear block has another late 17th-century mullion-and-transom window with leaded panes and ferramenta at first-floor level. Two further similar late 17th-century windows on the left of the rear elevation are half-dormers with gabled roofs containing 19th-century shaped bargeboards. The 19th-century rear porch has a panelled door with rectangular fanlight; the gable features wavy openwork bargeboards and a pendant. The rear wing roof is hipped.

Inside, the former hall (including the present entrance hall) contains a high-quality mid-16th-century 12-panel intersecting beam ceiling. The oak beams are richly moulded, with each panel containing 4 plain joists set at right angles to those in neighbouring panels. Contemporary oak floorboards are visible. Elsewhere, most of the interior was refurbished around 1880, though a section of a 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen has been reset in the rear block, apparently originating from the first floor front. The roof of the main block is original with 6 bays; examination in the roofspace reveals well-finished carpentry consistent throughout. Only a couple of side pegged jointed crucks are visible below. The first floor was mostly ceiled at collar level from the beginning. The late 17th-century roof to the rear block comprises 3 bays with plain A-frames and pegged lap-jointed collars. The rear block originally extended further northwards.

From each end of the frontage, long plastered cob walls on rubble footings with pitched thatched roofs extend southwards on either side of the garden. The left (west) wall includes a small gazebo against the house, 2 bee boles, and a series of cob buttresses on the unplastered rear side.

The property is associated with the Spencer family, who are first recorded here in 1333 according to Place Names of Devon.

The building is also included with 2 adjoining cob garden walls to the south.