Great Bidlake

Great Bidlake is a manor house with 16th-century origins and earlier foundations, extensively restored in the mid 19th century with some additions made. It is constructed of local stone rubble walls with granite dressings and is roofed with scantle and grouted slate with decorative 19th-century ridge tiles and numerous gables. The house has six 19th-century rubble and dressed granite stacks—three axial, two lateral, and one at the gable end of a wing.

The site was acquired in 1268 by Ralph de Combe, and following marriages into the Bidlake family, Bidlake became the family name. A description from the time of Thomas Bidlake (died 1531) records that "the great parlour with its large chimneyplace, the Entry and Porch, and a room or 2 beyond that, and those with chambers over them, were already built and fully furnished", indicating the house's importance and the presence of chimneys and first-floor rooms at this early date. Thomas Bidlake was succeeded by his son Henry (died 1792), after which the property passed to the Woolacombe family.

The plan shows complex development. Some late medieval fabric survives in the main left cross-wing, but the main build dates from the late 16th century, possibly from 1594 (a date found on a reused window head with initials A.B.). An E-shaped plan would have been typical for a manor house of this period. The early house layout is partially obscured by 19th-century restoration and remodelling. The lower right end may be a complete rebuild of this date. The porch and upper end suggest the hall was positioned to the left of it. The room in the cross-wing to the left, judging from the quality of roof construction, appears to have been a "great chamber" or first-floor parlour, with the wing extending to the rear.

In the 17th century, an adjoining unheated rear wing was added in the angle behind the hall. The house underwent no significant alteration until the mid 19th century, when the lower end was heavily remodelled if not rebuilt. At this time, a long cross-wing was extended to the rear, the passage and adjoining lower room to the right were converted into one large entrance hall, and a staircase was added in a tower at the rear of the former passage. At the left (higher) end, a parallel cross-wing was added for service purposes, and to its left a three-storey tower with a short wing behind was built, possibly for servant accommodation. The exterior was remodelled with several small gables and numerous mullion windows added or replaced. This remodelling was of high quality and intended to enhance the historic character of the building.

The house is two storeys with a three-storey tower. The principal front faces north-east and is basically E-shaped with the 19th-century wing and tower adjoining to the left. The main block has a symmetrical five-window front of granite mullion windows with small intermediate 19th-century gables between the wings and the two-storey porch. The ground-floor windows are all four-light and those on the first floor are three-light except for the porch window, which is two-light. The porch window is probably original, with a hollow chamfer and hoodmould. The window to the left of the porch on the ground floor is also early but may be 17th-century, with a moulded granite frame. Both windows in the left-hand wing are likely original with double chamfers and hoodmoulds. The other windows are mid 19th-century restorations. The first-floor window to the right-hand wing is inscribed with initials I.B.W. and dated 1848, referring probably to the Woolacombe family who inherited the property in the early 19th century.

The porch has a four-centred granite arched doorway with roll and hollow moulding and deeply incised scroll stops. The internal wooden doorframe is square-headed and ovolo moulded. Its door is contemporary, constructed of three studded planks with closely spaced vertical bead-moulding giving the appearance of narrow planks.

Reused in the front wall is a mullion head dated 1594 with initials A.B. Recessed to the left of the left-hand wing is a mid 19th-century addition, the gable end of which has a three-light 19th-century mullion window and a reused segmental-headed 17th-century granite doorway below. The square tower projects from the left-hand side of this addition.

The rear elevation is more irregular and preserves less early fabric. To its left is a long projecting wing. At the centre is the narrow gabled stair tower with the 17th-century wing adjoining to its right. This contains the only early granite mullion windows on this side: two-light on the first floor and three-light on the ground floor with hollow and double chamfers. To the right on the ground floor is a contemporary single granite-framed light. Slightly recessed from this wing is an adjoining earlier wing to its right with a projecting gable end stack. The outer face of this wing has a 17th-century round-headed roll-moulded granite doorway with incised scroll stops. To the right of this wing are gabled 19th-century additions, the right-hand of which is a short wing in front of the tower. It reuses in its wall a 15th-century two-light cinquefoiled window head from an earlier build of the house. The other windows on this elevation are 19th-century, either granite or wood mullions, with wooden transom windows on the stair tower and to the back stairs on the outer face of the right-hand wing.

The interior shows much evidence of 19th-century remodelling in features such as fireplaces and staircases. Some early features survive. The roof to the early left-hand wing has three probably 16th-century trusses. The two front ones have chamfered archbraced collars with morticed apex and diagonal ridge. A puzzling feature is that the rear truss of this wing is considerably higher than the other two and of different construction yet apparently contemporary, with slightly curved feet, threaded purlins, and morticed cranked collar and similar apex to the others. A 19th-century nailed roof covers the rest of the house.

A 17th-century fireplace survives in the room to the left of the entrance hall (probably the hall). It is granite framed and chamfered with a massive straight lintel carved with an intricate design of interlaced semi-circles. Leading from this room into the wing is a 17th-century segmental-headed granite doorway with roll moulding and incised scroll stops. To its right is an 18th-century arched wall cupboard with dropped keystone and moulded imposts. The present kitchen in the left-hand wing has a massive cross beam with a hollow chamfer and run-out stops and similar half-beams. The house evidently retained its importance from medieval times into the 19th century; the form of the Elizabethan house can still be discerned and retains some of its features, with some possibly earlier, while the 19th-century restoration was itself of high quality.