Combe

Rectory, now house. Built circa 1797. The building is constructed of roughcast over rubble with exposed quoins and features a pedimented centre that breaks forward slightly, also distinguished by quoins. The roof is of slate with overhanging eaves and soffit boards, hipped to the rear, with rendered stacks to the main block and to the ridge of the kitchen wing.

The plan is U-shaped, comprising a double-depth central block that is gabled to the front and hipped to the rear, flanked by lower wings—kitchen to the left (west) and stables to the right (east)—which are returned to flank a shallow court to the front of the house. The building is two storeys tall.

The central block contains three bays with a pedimented centre that breaks forward slightly. The centre bay features 4/4-pane sashes, with outer 6/6-pane sashes above tripartite sashes, each with a central 6/6-pane sash. The focal point is a central ashlar Ham stone pilaster doorcase. This doorcase is tripartite, consisting of a 9-panel door with flanking 3-pane side lights articulated by Tuscan pilasters rising to pediment medallions to the frieze.

The flanking ranges are of 2+2-window configuration, with 3/3-pane sashes to the first floor and similar sashes to the ground floor. The front face has a tripartite sash and panelled door. The garden block presents a 5-bay central range with similar sashes and outer projecting gable ends of service ranges, which feature round windows above fenestration similar to that on the front.

The interior has lost its original main staircase but otherwise remains substantially intact with high-quality original joinery and plaster cornicing. The service wings contain much simpler cornicing. The interior is distinguished by fine late 18th-century stone and marble chimneypieces, some of which appear to have been reset from a slightly earlier 18th-century building.

The parsonage was demolished around 1797 when the village of Nettlecombe was removed from the vicinity of Nettlecombe Court by Sir John Trevelyan, who erected Combe for his son George, who served as rector between 1792 and 1827. The building ceased to be the rectory in 1922.