Holcombe Court

Holcombe Court is a mansion and the finest Tudor house in Devon. It was built in the early 16th century for the Bluett family, who lived there until 1857. Parts were rebuilt in the mid-16th century, with major modernisations in the late 16th century and some alterations in the late 17th century. In 1857 the Reverend W. Rayer purchased the property and between 1859 and 1863 largely rebuilt the service wings and extensively modernised the rest of the house.

The building is constructed of local grey-coloured limestone laid to rough courses, with the mid-19th century work using larger and more carefully squared blocks of the same stone. Architectural details are in Beerstone and Hamstone. The chimneyshafts and stacks are of local limestone and the roofs are slate-covered.

Plan and Development

Holcombe Court is a large courtyard plan house built next to the Church of All Saints in its own grounds overlooking the main street of Holcombe Rogus. The main block faces south-east and forms the historic core. It has a three-room-and-through-passage plan with a tower-like four-storey porch in front of the doorway. The porch features a broad newel stair turret in the angle between porch and main block. This and the service end of the main block are early 16th century.

The double-height hall has a projecting rear lateral stack. At the upper end the main staircase is housed in its own block projecting to the rear in a corner of the courtyard. An inner room parlour or dining room lies at the right (north-east) end of the main block. Both this room and the principal chamber above have a gable-end stack. The long gallery runs across the top of the passage, hall and parlour chamber. This section was probably built circa 1550-1560, as was the north-east wing, though the latter was modernised in the mid-19th century.

The service end of the main block was modernised in the mid or late 16th century, when the original service arrangement was altered and the chamber above (the Court Room) was refurbished. The rest of the house was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. A new main staircase and library was built in the south-west wing and the north-west wing contains a full-height kitchen and service rooms. Most rooms are heated by either lateral or axial stacks.

The precise historical development of the older parts is not entirely clear. This is partly because the 19th century modernisation was carried out in Tudor style and reused old material, but even where the work is original the evidence can be confusing. For instance, the long gallery is dated circa 1550-1560 because it includes the name of Roger Bluett who died in 1566, making it potentially the earliest ornamental plasterwork known in Devon. However, it could commemorate the death of Sir Roger Bluett rather than mark its construction date. Similarly, the ornamental plasterwork in the Court Room is dated 1591, but this may only date the overmantel as the ceiling looks as if it could be earlier.

Exterior

The house is principally two storeys. The front elevation is particularly impressive, dominated by the showpiece entrance tower. This has set-back buttresses and an embattled parapet. A large four-centred outer arch with moulded surround forms the entrance, and above it a canted bay window is corbelled out and carried up all three of the upper storeys. A stone plaque containing the Bluett arms is set below the lowest of these windows.

The windows of the tower, its stair turret and the left end are stone-mullioned with Tudor arched heads, early 16th century in character. Those of the hall and inner room end, to the right of the tower, are also stone-mullioned but have square-headed lights, some with ovolo-moulding. There are two enormous six-light windows with central transoms lighting the hall. The inner room bay window is a replacement of 1975 but the chamber above has a four-light window with upper transom and hoodmould. A moulded eaves cornice runs below a parapet from which rise two large gables from the long gallery. Each gable contains a central four-light window flanked by tiny two-light windows with another directly above. The topmost windows are above ceiling level and are there purely for effect. Both gables have fleur-de-lys finials.

The fenestration around the rest of the house is similar in style, including those in the 19th century blocks. The rear elevation includes a pair of tall windows to the kitchen. The rear of the hall shows the blocking of a full-height window. On top of the entrance tower is a short length of 16th century ornamental lead guttering.

Interior

The hall is mid-19th century Tudor with a 19th century oak screen, fireplace and ribbed ceiling. The plasterwork may be based on the original, and some plaster moulds are stored in the house. On the lower side of the passage are four early 16th century pointed arch doorways: one to the entrance tower stair, the other three forming a conventional service arrangement. One contains an interesting studded plank door with folding flaps.

The service end was rearranged in the mid or late 16th century. The right two doorways now lead into a narrow corridor parallel with the main passage, and beyond the corridor lies a well-appointed chamber traditionally known as the Judges Room. Both it and the corridor have an ornamental plaster cornice, and the room is lined with circa 1700 large field bolection panelling.

The Court Room above is particularly well-appointed. Its high ceiling has ornamental moulded plasterwork in a geometric plan of single ribs ornamented only by moulded bosses and a central pendant. Around the side walls the ribs converge and descend a short distance down the wall like a series of half-engaged pendants. There are floral sprays between. This ornamental plasterwork looks early and somewhat similar to the possibly mid-16th century plasterwork at the other end. There is a plasterwork frieze around the room with a repeating strapwork motif which contains the date 1591 on the chimney breast. This is certainly associated with the splendid moulded plaster overmantel which features the Bluett arms. The Court Room is lined with circa 1700 bolection panelling.

One doorway leads off to the tower stair close to the first floor room there, the Muniment Room. Its doorway is richly carved and the interior is lined with high quality late 16th century small field oak panelling featuring a frieze of carved scenes, and including a contemporary muniment cupboard. The room above has plainer panelling and a simple moulded plaster overmantel featuring the arms of Elizabeth Chichester, wife of Richard Bluett, who died in 1614.

The library in the south-west wing has perhaps the most elaborate intersecting beam ceiling in Devon. It is early 16th century but was reset here in the 19th century.

The doorway from the hall to the inner room parlour is a 19th century insertion; originally this room was entered from the stair block. The parlour has an ornamental plaster ceiling which appears to cover another intersecting beam ceiling. It has good late 16th to early 17th century small field oak panelling around the room including a fine oak chimneypiece divided into three bays by pairs of fluted Ionic pilasters.

The main stair rises round a masonry core, its ceiling enriched with a simple rib pattern of plasterwork from circa 1550-1560. The chamber over the parlour has a moulded plaster ceiling of the same date using identical motifs to the Long Gallery ceiling. The ornamental plasterwork chimneypiece here is probably secondary, late 16th century. It is of very good quality but given charm for its rustic craftsmanship, featuring Moses and the brazen serpent in a strapwork cartouche.

The Long Gallery is the grandest in Devon, and its ornamental plaster ceiling is crucial to the dating and development of Devonshire plasterwork. It is flat with coved corners down to a narrow frieze of arabesques. Its ornamentation comprises longitudinal moulded ribs dividing to create pointed panels in which are set moulded plaster motifs such as the Tudor Rose, snowflake bosses and the initials spelling Roger Bluett (died 1566). The gallery also includes nine tiny rooms each with an individual plank door off the gallery. Another at the top of the stairs is a little larger than the others and has a simple rib design on its ceiling. The stair also contains a 17th century dog gate with three tiers of turned balusters.

The roof structure over the Long Gallery comprises plain A-frames on tie beams, apparently contemporary with the ceiling. The north-east wing roof is probably the same date, with a series of arch-braced trusses.

Significance

Holcombe Court is spectacularly attractive, both in itself and also as part of a group of attractive buildings at the top end of Holcombe Rogus. As the only 16th century mansion of this size to survive in Devon it is also of great importance to the understanding of Tudor plan forms and decoration in the south-west.