Holcombe Court

Holcombe Rogus is an historic manor in the parish of Holcombe Rogus in Devon. The present grade I listed Tudor manor house known as Holcombe Court was built by Sir Roger Bluett circa 1540 and was owned by the Bluett family until 1858 when Peter Frederick Bluett sold the estate to Rev. William Rayer, Rector of Tidcombe near Tiverton. The house is situated immediately to the west of the parish church. The gardens and grounds are screened off from the public road at the south by a high wall in which is a tall and broad entrance archway which forms the start of the entrance drive.

The manor of Holcombe Rogus had been acquired by the Bluett family in the early 15th century following the marriage of Sir John Bluett lord of the manor of neighbouring Greenham Barton and Cothay Manor, both in Somerset, about 1 1/2 miles north-east of Holcombe Rogus, to Maude Chiseldon, daughter and co-heiress of John Chiseldon (d.1420) of Holcombe Rogus Sheriff of Devon in 1406, whose other daughter and co-heiress, Margaret Chiseldon, married Sir William Wadham (died 1452), of Edge, Branscombe, Devon and Merryfield, Ilton, Somerset, ancestor of Nicholas Wadham (1531/2–1609), the co-founder with Dorothy Wadham of Wadham College, Oxford.

Cothay Manor (2 1/2 miles to the north-east), was rebuilt in 1481 by Richard Bluett, and the Manor of Kittisford was later added to the Bluett estates.

The south entrance front was described by Pevsner as "the most spectacular example of the Tudor style in Devon". The front porch is entered through a four-centred arch above which is a three-storey bay-window protruding and supported by corbels. The porch is surmounted by a massive buttressed tower with a staircase turret on its west (left) side. The front door opens into the screens passage which in its west side has not only the usual three doorways leading originally to buttery kitchen and pantry but also a fourth leading to the stair turret. To the east (right) of the entrance is the great hall, which has two tall six-lighted windows with single transoms. The roof-space was subsequently ceiled to form a 65-foot long gallery above, said by Pevsner to be the best example from the 16th century in Devon. On its plaster ceiling survive the initials of the builder Sir Roger Bluett (d.1566), which makes it the earliest datable plaster ceiling in Devon. The north and west ranges were added or rebuilt in the Victorian age, c. 1859-68 by Rev. W. Rayer to the design of John Hayward. A prominent feature of the south aspect of the house is the large circular dovecote on the east (right) side, further east of which is the stable court yard

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