The Pack Of Cards Including Courtyard Walls Incorporating Bee Boles On North-West Side

COMBE MARTIN HIGH STREET, Combe Martin SS 54 NE 1/74 The Pack of Cards including - courtyard walls incorporating bee- 9.3.53 boles on north-west side GV II* Public house. Early C18. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Slate roofs. Tall rendered stacks with drips to each of the four corners of the third and fourth stages of the central block. Wrought iron balustrade to top stages. Elaborate symmetrical plan consisting of a tall rectangular central block reducing to a square through 5 storeys, with 3 storey aisled wings with gabled ends projecting to each side. The first three stages have principal rooms in the wings leading off corridors running right through the central block which has a 2-storey virtually free standing porch to south-east front and first floor access to north- east entrance facing road. 5-storey central block with 3 storey wings. South-east front has virtually free- standing two-storey porch supported on 8 Tuscan columns, with central Venetian window with Y glazing bars to the upper storey. Single casement windows to each of the stages of the central block above the porch, except top stage. Slate sundial to left of the middle 3-light window. All the window openings to each side of the central block have been infilled except to top stage. The gable end of the right- hand projecting wing has symmetrical 1:2:1 disposition of 12-paned sashes to first 2 storeys and single sash to the third storey central gable, above which is a polygonal sundial. The left-hand wing is identical except that there are no outer sashes to the ground floor. North-east side facing road has Venetian style window with Y-glazing bar above first floor entrance to central block which has bracketted pedimented canopy with engaged pilasters and 6 panelled door. The courtyard wall on the north-west side incorporates 2 tiers of 6 straight-headed bee-boles with slightly rounded pilastered niches. Interior: despite C20 alterations to the ground floor, most of the joinery and moulded cornices have been retained. The first and second floors are unspoilt, with decorative plaster ceilings to the principal first floor room in the left-hand wing and to the through-corridor. Both corridors are panelled as is the central room on the third floor where Marie Corelli reputedly wrote "The Mighty Atom". All the principal rooms have moulded plaster cornices, and good quality raised and fielded panelling joinery survives throughout. The inn was reputedly built as a private house by George Ley following a spectacular win at gambling, the number of original windows, doorways, chimneys etc., each reflecting the component features of a pack of cards.

Listing NGR: SS5833646722