Great Combe

Great Combe is a house formerly used as a farmhouse, located in Stoke Fleming. The building dates from around the 17th century, possibly with earlier origins, and was partly rebuilt in the 18th century. It was extended in the 18th or 19th century, with a further large extension added in 1987.

The house is constructed from local slate rubble with dressed slate quoins. The roof is covered in asbestos slate with gabled ends. The left-hand (north) wing has a hipped roof and was being reroofed at the time of survey in 1987. The right-hand gable end has a short 19th-century brick chimney stack, and there is a projecting rear lateral stack with a rebuilt shaft.

The existing house follows a 2-room and through-passage plan, facing west. The large hall to the left is heated by a lateral stack at the rear. The lower end to the right (south) contains a cellar below. A 2-storey porch projects from the front at the passage, and at the higher left end there is an outbuilding cross-wing which may have originally formed part of the house, though it sits at a floor level approximately 0.75 metres higher than the hall. This outbuilding retains the remains of what may have been a stair turret at the rear. Behind the lower end is an outshut, and behind the hall is a large late 20th-century addition built in the angle with the outbuilding cross-wing, possibly occupying the site of a former bakehouse or detached kitchen range, as evidenced by the remains of a stack and hearth discovered during construction.

The house largely results from an early 17th-century remodelling. The large hall may occupy the site of an earlier open hall, the floor of which would have been lowered when the hall was ceiled in the early 17th century. The lower end appears to have been rebuilt, probably in the 18th century, when a cellar was excavated below and beneath the passage. The house was likely refenestrated at this time. The rear outshut is probably a 19th-century addition.

The exterior shows 2 storeys on an asymmetrical 4-window west front, with a gabled 2-storey porch positioned right of centre. All windows are 20th-century sashes with glazing bars, likely replacing earlier sashes. The two left-hand windows on both floors occupy larger early 17th-century window openings which have been reduced. The ground-floor windows retain their hoodmoulds, and the ground-floor left-hand window preserves its early 17th-century cyma-moulded timber lintel with bar stops. The porch features a fine chamfered round arch with dressed slate voussoirs and a 20th-century outer door. The porch chamber window above is a 20th-century sash, and the gable has been rebuilt in rendered brick. The inner porch doorway has a fine timber door-frame with ovolo and cyma moulding with fillets and large carved vase-shaped stops with fleurons above within a strapwork frame. The early 17th-century door has 16 panels with moulded and studded cover-moulds and large wrought-iron hinges. The doorway has a cyma-moulded timber lintel with bar stops, identical to the passage rear doorway which is now within a later outshut at the back. At the left-hand end is an outbuilding with a cart entrance on the ground floor and a loft opening above.

The rear elevation shows, to the right and centre, a large parallel range in concrete blocks faced in stone rubble with a parallel gable-ended roof, which was under construction in 1987. To the left at the back is a single-storey outshut above which are two window openings. At the right-hand end of the back, the rear end of the outbuilding has a window slit in the former stair turret. Across the lower south end of the house is a long outshut at the lower ground level with a round-headed window in the apex of the gable.

Interior: The passage partitions have been recently replaced, with the lower right-hand partition moved to widen the passage. The right-hand lower end room at ground floor is featureless. The large hall to the right of the passage has a fine late 16th or early 17th-century moulded plaster ceiling with moulded single ribs in ogee patterns terminating in floral scrolls with animal heads. Part of the plaster ceiling at the centre and some of the ovolo-moulded cornice is missing, with only a section of the frieze moulding at the higher end and another section to the right of the fireplace on the rear wall surviving. The fireplace overmantel is later than the ceiling and dated 1640, displaying the large Royal Arms of Charles I flanked by a rose on one side and thistle on the other, with a crown above. Part of the fireplace lintel survives with cyma and fillet moulding with bar stops. The wide fireplace was probably reduced in width when the overmantel was installed in 1640.

The chamber over the hall was formerly 2 rooms, as evidenced by 2 fireplaces. The fireplace in the lateral stack at the rear has dressed slate jambs and a renewed lintel. The other fireplace in the higher end wall has dressed slate jambs and a cyma-moulded timber lintel with bar stops. The circa late 16th or early 17th-century moulded plaster overmantel above displays a somewhat grotesque bust of Medusa in a strapwork frame flushed by scrolls with bird masks at the top and animals (possibly lions) at the bottom holding sprigs of flowers. To the right and left are figures of Adam and Eve standing behind lilies. Above the lintel is a moulded plaster frieze of arabesques and moulded cornices. The hall chamber ceiling has been replaced but some moulded plasterwork survives on the feet of two trusses at the front, in the form of fleurons and chevron patterns on the soffit or face of the trusses. The roof has been replaced but the foot of a truss is exposed at the front, and another truss over the hall-passage partition shows the structure had straight principal rafters with curved braces resting on wall plates, presumably designed for a vaulted plaster ceiling. The chamber over the lower end is featureless except for a small fireplace with a brick arch in the gable end wall.

The outbuilding cross-wing at the higher end has what appears to be the remains of a stair turret in the rear right-hand corner and a small moulded timber bracket high up in the partition wall with the hall. The outbuilding has pegged scissor-braced trusses, probably 18th or early 19th century.