Combe Sydenham

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Setting of Combe Sydenham CombeSydenham Stogumber Somerset geographorguk.jpg
Setting of Combe Sydenham
Combe Sydenham Hall Combe Sydenham Hall.jpg
Combe Sydenham Hall

Combe Sydenham is an historic manor in Somerset, England. The 15th-century manor house, called Combe Sydenham House is in the parish of Stogumber, Somerset [1] and is situated just within the boundary of Exmoor National Park. It is a Grade I listed building. [2]

Contents

Description of house

The porch was added in 1580 to the south front of the building. The west front was re-fenestrated, and at least two stair turrets were added in about 1600. The south front has been re-fenestrated and buildings to the north and east were demolished. [2]

Description of estate

The house is set in a 500 acres (200 ha) estate which contains a deer park and a variety of walks. [3] [4]

Descent

de Moyon/Mohun

Combe Sydenham is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as one of the many manors held by William de Moyon, [5] 1st feudal baron of Dunster, seated at nearby Dunster Castle, Somerset.

Sydenham

Arms of Sydenham: Argent, three rams passant guardant sable SydenhamArms.PNG
Arms of Sydenham: Argent, three rams passant guardant sable
Map showing locations of historic seats of the Sydenham family of Somerset: Sydenham; Orchard Sydenham; Combe Sydenham; Brympton D'Evercy; Combe, Dulverton; Pixton Map SydenhamFamily Seats Somerset.PNG
Map showing locations of historic seats of the Sydenham family of Somerset: Sydenham; Orchard Sydenham; Combe Sydenham; Brympton D'Evercy; Combe, Dulverton; Pixton

Combe Sydenham Hall was the home of a junior branch of the Sydenham family of Sydenham, Bridgwater, from the 15th century to 1693. [6] [7] In 1585 Admiral Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-1596) married Elizabeth Sydenham (born c.1562), the only child and sole heiress of Sir George Sydenham (d.1597), [8] of Combe Sydenham, Sheriff of Somerset, [9] whose monument with effigy survives in the Sydenham Chapel of Stogumber Church. Before the marriage however Drake left on a long voyage and her father arranged for her to be married instead to a son of the Wyndham family of nearby Orchard Wyndham. Tradition states that on the wedding day as the couple approached the Church of St Mary at Stogumber a loud clap of thunder was heard and a large meteorite crashed through the roof. This was seen as a bad omen and the wedding was cancelled. Drake had arrived back in Plymouth on that same day and they were later married at the Church of All Saints in Monksilver. The 14 inches (360 mm) diameteriron meteorite, known as "Drake's cannon ball", has remained at the house ever since and has become smooth from being rolled on the ground. [8] After Drake's death in 1596, Elizabeth Sydenham remarried (as his 2nd wife) to Sir William V Courtenay (1553–1630) of Powderham, Devon. [10]

Sir John Sydenham, 1st Baronet (c. 1620–1643) married a certain Alice, but died before the birth of his posthumous son and heir Sir John Posthumous Sydenham, 2nd Baronet (1643–1696). His widow remarried to Sir Francis Dodington, who resided at Combe Sydenham during the Civil War, as a Royalist, and in 1651 during his tenure Combe Sydenham was confiscated by the Parliamentarians. [11] Parliament purported to sell Combe Sydenham to John Ware, but following the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy, it was restored to the 2nd Baronet, who in 1693 sold the entire estate to George Musgrave (d. 1721). [12]

Musgrave

Arms of Musgrave of Musgrave, Hartley and Edenhall in Cumberland: Azure, six annulets three, two, one, or These are the arms of Baron Musgrave created 1350, being a difference of the arms of Vipont, the powerful Westmorland family and overlords whose many feudal tenants and followers adopted for arms variants of Vipont MusgraveArms.PNG
Arms of Musgrave of Musgrave, Hartley and Edenhall in Cumberland: Azure, six annulets three, two, one, or These are the arms of Baron Musgrave created 1350, being a difference of the arms of Vipont, the powerful Westmorland family and overlords whose many feudal tenants and followers adopted for arms variants of Vipont

Several monuments to the Musgrave family survive in the "Sydenham Chapel" (South Aisle Chapel) of Stogumber Church, which display the arms of Musgrave: Azure, six annulets three, two, one, or. [14] The Musgrave family were previously seated during most of the 17th century at Huish Barton in the parish of Nettlecombe, Somerset, in which house is a plaster overmantel displaying the date 1698 and the monogram of the Musgraves. [15] William Musgrave (1655–1721), of Exeter, a physician and antiquary, was the youngest son of Richard Musgrave of Nettlecombe. He attended the Trevelyan family of Nettlecombe Court, long time lords of the manor of Nettlecombe and wrote several treatises on arthritis and four volumes of Antiquitates Brittanno-Belgicae. The descent of Combe Sydenham in the Musgrave family was as follows: [12]

Notley

The descent of Combe Sydenham in the Notley family between 1796 and 1958 was as follows: [12]

Campbell-Voullaire

Group Captain E. G. Campbell-Voullaire, Royal Air Force, after a distinguished service during World War II in 1958 purchased Combe Sydenham from the Notley heiress. "It had been terribly run down, and he was putting it all together again". [28] He employed as his farm manager the young John Edwards (b.1926), recently qualified in agriculture at Seale-Hayne College near Exeter, Devon. Edwards went on to farm for himself at Westermill Farm on Exmoor and to serve as a county councillor, an active member of the National Farmers Union, and as a member of the Exmoor National Park Committee since 1972. He stated of his time at Combe Sydenham: [29]

"And that really was an experience, being farm manager for somebody like Voullaire. He was an extraordinary man, but (we) have remained very good friends ever since because he's such a remarkable man. But incredible difficult. It was very interesting, and very interesting...coping with a rather difficult employer. But he thinks they both respected each other, and he found that interesting. He saw the job written up and applied. Campbell-Voullaire had a succession of farm managers and (Edwards and his wife) were easily the longest inhabitants. He was only just over a year there. As farm manager at Combe Sydenham he worked bloody hard. Running the farm. Peter Batchelor from Exford used to work for them. He was the shepherd. They had a cowman and a tractor driver and one other chap, so he had to organise them. And there was corn, cows, sheep, beef. The estate was about 500 acres he thinks, but Campbell-Voullaire was taking in more and more land and putting the estate back together again, putting a lot of money into it. And woodland. Which they didn't actually have anything to do with. Campbell-Voullaire wasn't really interested. Whereas Theed, who has now bought it, has done the opposite. No, there wasn't a working mill there in those days, though there is now of course because Theed has put that in order. It was just an ordinary Williton area farm. Good land, steep land but a good bit of ground. And they did quite a bit of reclamation, on the steep ground. They had Sid Sherring doing a lot of the steep work. It was a very good experience. Very interesting.

Theed

2020 sale

In 2020, substantial forest land near Combe Sydenham was sold to SMH Woodland Ltd, a UK company believed to be controlled by Sir Michael Hintze an Australian property investor with the sporting rights were sold separately to a London-based investment group. [31] <inadequate citation>

Further reading

See also

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References

  1. latitude=51.1225, longitude=-3.3215
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Combe Sydenham (1057497)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 6 February 2009.
  3. "Combe Sydenham Country Park". Enjoy England. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  4. "Combe Sydenham Hall". Historic Houses Association. Archived from the original on 2 February 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  5. Domesday Book: A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN   0-14-143994-7 p.262-6
  6. Collinson, Rev. John, History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Vol.3, Bath, 1791, p.547
  7. "Combe Sydenham". Mysterious Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  8. 1 2 Warren, Derrick (2005). Curious Somerset. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. pp. 90–91. ISBN   978-0-7509-4057-3.
  9. "The Occupants of the ancient office of High Sheriff of Somerset". Tudor Court. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  10. "COURTENAY, Sir William I (1553-1630), of Powderham, Devon". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  11. A P Baggs, R J E Bush and M C Siraut, 'Parishes: Stogumber', in Victoria Coubty History, Somerset: Volume 5, ed. R W Dunning (London, 1985), pp. 177-190 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol5/pp177-190
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Baggs, Bush & Siraut
  13. Jefferson, Samuel, History and Antiquities of Leath Ward: in the County of Cumberland, Carlisle, 1840, p.411
  14. Later branches of the Musgrave family adopted differences of the original Musgrave arms, for example Argent, on a pile per pale azure and gules six annulets or (Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p.1657). The Musgrave arms depicted on monuments in Stogumber Church are much effaced, but the 6 annulets are clearly discernible
  15. baggs, Bush & Siraut, "Parishes: Nettlecombe"
  16. 1 2 Vivian, 1895, p.60, pedigree of Beare
  17. Image, see
  18. Image see File:ClavellArms.PNG
  19. per Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp.447 & 478
  20. 1 2 Per mural monument in Stogumber Church
  21. Per his father's mural monument in Stogumber Church
  22. "Marwood Notley".
  23. 1 2 marwoodnotley.blogspot, based on Pearson
  24. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.560, pedigree & arms of Marwood of Westcot
  25. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.910
  26. 1 2 3 marwoodnotley.blogspot
  27. Rosewell, C. J. (2017). Rosewell of the Blackdown Hills – 1436-2004. Somerset Heritage Centre, A\DUK – 2017/121, pp. 62.
  28. Exmoor Oral History Archive, John Edwards, 2/2
  29. Exmoor Oral History Archive, John Edwards, 2/2, recorded in 2001
  30. Somerset County Gazette, 11 August 2012
  31. HM Land Registry 2020 Property Sales, 12 April 2021