Combe

This is a manor house dating back to the late medieval period. Significant alterations were made in the late 16th century, including a ceiled hall, a buttery converted into a parlour, the addition of a staircase in the northwest corner, and an east wing. A 18th century refenestration and the removal of a 16th century porch occurred, followed by a 19th century porch which was later removed in 1926-7 when extensive alterations and enlargements were undertaken for Colonel E.J. Harrison.

The building is constructed of random rubble stone with slate roofs. It comprises a higher central block and a lower west wing with a parallel range, connected by stone stacks. Remains of external stacks are visible on the east wing gable end and a projecting centre on the 20th-century east front. The building has a U-plan open hall, with a parlour in the former buttery to the right of an enlarged screen passage.

The facade is largely irregular, with mainly 20th-century windows designed in an early 17th-century style, incorporating mixed 3-light casements and mullioned and transomed windows. A left gable features two square-headed openings forming a first-floor loggia. A small, original 16th-century moulded 2-light casement is reset into the right gable end. The ground floor to the left of the entrance has five windows, while there is a lancet window in the angle with the main block. A hood mould tops the parlour window. Ovolo-moulded 2-light casements and a moulded beam feature in the loggia’s end bay. The main entrance has a fine, late 16th-century door with decorative detailing, including an arched centre, decorative spandrels, and lozenges.

Inside, the hall is ceiled with a 15-panel moulded compartment ceiling, with some joists being renewed. A new doorway has been inserted into the screen passage, and a modern grate and patterned parquet floor are present. A music room above contains a five-bay arch-braced roof with renewed windbraces. The parlour features linenfold panelling, a carved decorative cornice with cresting, fine late 16th-century plasterwork depicting putti with garlands and masks, a decorative ribbed plaster ceiling, and a modern grate. The screens passage has a moulded timber ceiling, enlarged at the rear in the 20th century. The stair turret incorporates barley twist balusters of uncertain period, a moulded handrail, and remnants of a late 17th-century plaster ceiling with a modillion cornice and an arched entrance to the east wing. A depressed Tudor arch head frames the doorway on a mezzanine leading to a room of convenience. 16th-century panelling is found in a corridor and an end bedroom of the east wing; moulded lintels are above fireplaces. A bedroom over the parlour mirrors the plasterwork cornice, with remnants of a ceiling. Bases of two pairs of arch-brace trusses are visible.

Reproductions of watercolors document the facade's many changes. The house was the residence of the Sydenham family from the late 15th century until 1874. The plasterwork shares similarities with work at Orchard Wyndham in Williton, reflecting family connections.