Colcombe Castle

Colcombe Castle was a now lost castle or fortified house situated about a half mile north of the village of Colyton in East Devon.

It was a seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon, whose principal seat was Tiverton Castle, about 22 miles to the NW. It was used as his seat by Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon (d. 1458) while his widowed mother occupied Tiverton Castle as her dower house. Its position near to Shute, the seat of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (1392–1461), the arch-enemy of the 5th Earl, led to some serious territorial battles between the two families, culminating in the Battle of Clyst Heath of 1455.

Tristram Risdon, writing c. 1630, described the descent of the manor of Colyford thus:

The manor at the Conquest was parcel of the king's demesne, which the Conqueror gave to Robert de Mount Chardon; but being released again was by King Henry II, with the manor of Whitford, bestowed on Sir Alan Dunstanville, whose son Sir Walter Dunstanville gave it in marriage unto Sir Thomas Bassett, his nephew, younger son of the Lord Bassett, by Alice, sister of the said Walter; which gift was by consent of King John. This land descended unto the two daughters of the said Sir Thomas Bassett: Joan, first married unto Sir Reginald Valletort, second unto Sir William Courtenay, younger son of the Lord Courtenay. Alice, the other daughter, was married unto Sir Thomas Sanford, and secondly unto Sir John Bissett, whose part afterwards was sold unto Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, so that the whole manors of Colliton and Whitford came to be the possessions of the Earls of Devon, who builded a mansion house at Colcombe, near Colliton, which was intended to be stately built but his death, and the attainder of Henry his son, left the same to the ruins of time. This land was restored unto Edward Courtenay, the last earl of this family, by Queen Mary, and by death, left to descend to the heirs general who sold this manor and house. Now the manor are divided; the one moiety the lord Petre possesseth, the other moiety Sir John Pole and Sir John Drake, knights, enjoy.

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