West Challacombe Manor

West Challacombe Manor is a small manor house, now functioning as a farmhouse, located in Combe Martin. It is a Grade II* listed building of exceptional architectural and historical significance.

The house originates from the 15th century, with a 16th-century porch and what is probably a 17th-century rear stair turret. 19th-century additions include extensions and rear lean-tos. The main structure is built of painted rendered stone rubble and cob, with 19th-century extensions in coursed rubble. The roofs are predominantly slate, though the west range has a gabled pantile roof connected by a cross wing to a 2-storey infill. Notable chimneys include a tall rear lateral hall stack of unrendered stone rubble with offsets, a stone rubble stack to the left-hand side of the cross wing, and an axial stone rubble stack to the service range.

The building follows an original 3-room cross-passage plan typical of high-quality late medieval hall houses. The most significant interior feature is a remarkably fine 15th-century false hammer-beam roof in the hall, which is not smoke-blackened, suggesting that the rear lateral stack is original. The roof comprises 5 main trusses and 4 subsidiary trusses, all A-frames resting on false hammerbeams. The intermediate trusses are moulded, as are the main trusses which carry applied mouldings. The double ridge and 3 tiers of purlins are moulded, forming squares with pairs of windbraces decorated with foliated cusps. Moulded archbracing runs from the collars onto the hammerbeams. The substantial wallplates also carry mouldings. Some original rafters survive, though most are replacements, including some of chestnut. Evidence indicates the roof was originally lined with lath and plaster behind the main structure.

The through-passage at the west end is set against a cross wing, originally 2 storeys, featuring a 3-light trefoil-headed mullioned window in the solar rear wall and a first-floor round-headed doorway against the stack. In the early 19th century this wing was divided into 2 rooms on both floors, including a dairy on the ground floor. A 17th-century stair turret leads from the rear cross-passage to the northeast corner of the wing. The kitchen now occupies the east lean-to, using the axial stack in the gable wall. A door from the kitchen's north end leads into a dairy, probably 18th-century, positioned behind a probably 18th-century stair turret which led to a first-floor chamber bearing a 1732 date plaque.

Externally, the building presents a 2-storey frontage across a 7-window range. The 16th-century porch features a 2-light stone-mullioned window above a coat of arms, probably of John Prouz (or Prous) of Chagford, who inherited from his grandfather who died in 1548. The 15th-century cross-passage doorway has a 2-centred ashlar arch with ogee and hollow mouldings. The original plank door is particularly notable, featuring heavily moulded cover strips and a low set cross-piece forming four panels below. Two richly carved figures adorn the central panels: one combining a female body with a male head, the other entirely male.

The hall to the right displays two 16-panel sashes on each floor and a 2-light casement at the right end over a 6-paned window. The gable end of the cross wing to the west has 2-light casements on each floor with 8 panes per light, with a small weathered datestone of 1703 positioned between them. Remaining fenestration is predominantly 19th-century. A plank door leads to a single-storey connecting passage, with two 16-pane sashes over a similar sash, to the left of twin 16-paned sashes extending further left. Large double plank doors mark the left gable end.

Inside, the ground floor is largely 19th-century in appearance, though 15th-century through-passage openings survive. The rear opening, approached by steps, is finished in ashlar with chamfering and a rebate for a door. On the first floor, a plaster panel on the east gable wall carries the date 1732, indicating the room was likely the first inserted into the originally open hall. A 15th-century wooden 3-light mullioned window in the rear room features cusped trefoil heads and is not rebated for glazing. The first-floor passage is unceiled, exposing the 15th-century oak hall roof in its full glory.

The false hammer-beam roof is an exceptionally significant survival and is believed to have been built by the Orchard family, or to be connected with the marriage of Joan or Jane Orchard to John Prouz of Chagford around 1475.

The building remains remarkably little altered since the 19th century and is south-facing, with a range of outbuildings positioned to the south.