Haccombe House

Haccombe House is a large house now divided into flats. It represents an early 19th-century remodelling of an 18th-century house, though the exact date and extent of the early 19th-century rebuilding remain uncertain. White's Devonshire (1879) describes it as "built on the site of an ancient hall, in 1805"; Pevsner notes it was "called 'lately erected in 1803, but also 'built about 50 years ago' in 1872". Boyd and Whiteaway refer to "changes including the building of the north east wing and the demolition of the north west wing" around 1838. The north-west end of the house does not appear in Swete's watercolour of the 1790s. The manor was owned by Stephen de Haccombe after 1066 and subsequently passed to his descendants, the Careys, who owned it until 1942.

The house is constructed of snecked red sandstone, formerly stuccoed, with rusticated quoins and stone bands. It has a two-span slate roof, hipped at the ends with a dentil eaves cornice, and rendered stacks. The plan comprises a symmetrical main block facing north-west with a central entrance into a heated entrance hall, an open well stair in the stair hall to the right, and lower, separately roofed blocks to the left and right, including a front left (north-east) wing.

The north-west elevation is symmetrical with seven bays, the centre three bays broken forward. Stone banding and rusticated quoins run throughout, though the north-east wing is rendered. The main block rises three storeys, with the remaining sections two storeys. The central porch features paired Ionic columns with reeded pilasters to the rear, a cornice, and a balustraded parapet. Stone pilasters mentioned in the old list description no longer exist. The small front door has a reeded doorcase, broken pediment, and deep rectangular fanlight, though the glazing bars mentioned previously do not survive. The building has 12-pane 19th-century sash windows to the ground and first floors, 6-pane to the second floor, all with moulded architraves. A two-storey block adjoining at the right end has tripartite two-pane sashes; the left end block has a tripartite first floor sash, with the ground floor sash adapted as a doorway.

The north-east wing features a six-bay front elevation with giant pilasters. The centre four bays are broken forward under a pediment, with a four-bay portico having Tuscan columns, a cornice, and a parapet with sunk panels. The rear (south-east) elevation of the main block is similar to the front but longer, with nine bays. Windows on the ground floor are recessed below three reeded round-headed arches. The eaves cornice is missing and the second storey windows have been reglazed. The right return of the main block has two large stuccoed canted bays on the ground floor with 20th-century windows and doors. The rear elevation of the north-east wing has the centre four bays broken forward under a gable, with round-headed windows recessed behind round-headed openings.

The interior was not thoroughly inspected, but surviving features visible at the time of survey appear to be early 19th-century: a plaster cornice and marble chimneypiece in the entrance hall, and a large open well stair with twisted balusters.

The house holds group value with the Church of St Blaise.