COMBE or COOMBE

• History of Combe
• Occupants of Combe as shown in the census
• Documents relating to Coombe
• Fields belonging to Combe in 1842 and 1918

History and architecture of Combe

Combe means “valley” and the farm no doubt takes its name from its location on the river Yeo (which forms its north-western boundary). It is one of the earliest properties in Spreyton to be mentioned in the records. In 1332, Alexander atte Combe is listed as one of four people in Spreyton required to pay the “lay subsidy” or tax raised that year by Edward III to finance “great and arduous affairs in Ireland and elsewhere”. The lay subsidy was levied at a 15% rate on all people with moveable goods worth 10s or over, quite a high threshold at the time, so only the most prosperous were caught by it (household and farm equipment was excluded, so effectively the goods counted were animals and crops). Alexander, like his neighbours at Begbeer and a farm that no longer exists called Crosse, paid 8d; only the Talbots (who were Lords of the Manor of Spreyton) paid more. So it was clearly one of the most important farms in Spreyton at that period, and Alexander was no doubt a “freeholder”, i.e. with rights tantamount to ownership of his property albeit whilst owing various dues to the Lord of the Manor of Spreyton.

The farmhouse was built in the early 16th century, a time of prosperity for Devon farmers, and is a typical Devon longhouse, originally with the living-rooms at the higher end, then a corridor from front to back, and then at the other end a shippon for the animals. It obviously replaced an earlier dwelling, probably a hall-house open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire – some smoke-blackened timbers from that period are still part of the building. As so often with these farmhouses, a kitchen/dairy wing was added probably in the following century, which was a time when farmer’s wives were beginning to require more spacious and convenient kitchen arrangements. So the building is now L-shaped. The inglenook fireplace that must originally have been in the kitchen annex has disappeared, and unfortunately the interior of the house was badly messed about in the 1960s (Combe was missed out when the original listing of Spreyton buildings was done and was not protected). But enough original features remain, including good woodwork, for the authorities subsequently to have given the house its Grade II* listing, one of only two in Spreyton (the other is Spreyton Barton). The Historic England description is as follows:

Farmhouse, former Dartmoor longhouse type. Early 16th century with major 17th century improvements, modernised circa 1960 when shippon was converted and brought into domestic use.

Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; granite and cob stacks, the former (to the
hall) with its original granite ashlar chimney-shaft; thatch roof.

Plan and development: L-shaped building. The main block faces north-west and is
built down the hillslope. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan facing north-
west. Uphill at the right (south-west) end the inner room parlour has an end stack
serving ground and first floor rooms. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the
passage. Circa 1960 the passage front doorway was blocked and the shippon end
converted to 2 rooms, the inner with a projecting front lateral stack of that date.
At the same time a new front doorway was inserted into the left end room. Kitchen
block projects forward at right angles from the inner room and it overlaps the hall
a little. It has a large gable-end stack. The original early 16th century house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth
fire. Usually the process by which the fireplaces were inserted and the rooms
floored was a progressive piecemeal process leaving the hall open until the early or
mid-17th century. If that process had been happening here all evidence was removed in a major mid-17th century refurbishment. The hall and inner room fireplaces and ceiling beams all seem to be the result of a single building phase. The kitchen block was added about the same time and was quite likely part of the same scheme. Nothing earlier than circa 1960 shows in the shippon end. House is 2 storeys throughout.

Exterior: main block has a 2-window front of 20th century casements without glazing bars and more similar windows to rear. The single front ground floor window is blocking the passage doorway. Circa 1960 doorway to converted shippon contains a door of that date behind a contemporary gabled porch. Main roof is hipped to left and half-hipped to right. The kitchen block is gable-ended and heavily buttressed.

Good interior: the mid-17th century hall and inner room are separated by a cob crosswall. The hall fireplace is built of Cocktree ashlar (now lined with 20th century stone) and has a soffit-moulded oak lintel with runout stops. The axial beam has double ovolo mouldings with bar-runout stops and plain joists. The contemporary oak doorframe from hall to inner room has an ovolo-moulded surround with exaggerated scroll stops. The inner room parlour fireplace oak lintel is ogee-moulded with step stops (a date of 1701 inscribed on the lintel is surely secondary). There is a smaller version of the fireplace above. Parlour ceiling carried on half beams each end, both with filleted ogee mouldings and bar-runout stops. In the kitchen the fireplace is
blocked and the crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with one scroll stop exposed. The
roof over this block is carried on 2 mid-17th century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. An 18th century cupboard with panelled doors in the parlour and possibly 17th, maybe 18th century, first floor doorframe with scratch-moulded, almost reeded, surround. Roof over inner room, hall and passage is late medieval. There are 3 face-pegged jointed crucks with cambered collars and small triangular yokes (Alcock's apex type L1).

The truss over the hall is of larger scantling and has chamfered arch braces but
part of it has been cut through to accommodate the 20th century stairs. All 3 trusses and the hip cruck are heavily smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The rest of the roof structure was replaced circa 1960.

Originally, there was a full range of outbuildings – linhay, barn, cider-house with pound, etc – mostly built of cob and thatch and probably also dating back to the 16th or 17th century. Unfortunately, sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, when the property had ceased to be a farm, the then owner demolished all but one of the outbuildings (a linhay which has now been converted into a dwelling), otherwise they might also be listed as of historical or architectural interest. At one time there was also at least one cottage, as the 1797 marriage of William Brock of Combe provides for his wife to occupy a ‘dwelling-house on the estate, formerly a malt-house’ if he should predecease her.

Also in the 1960s or 1970s, the outside of the house was remodelled, and the front door is now on the back – i.e. the side which originally looked onto the farm buildings. Modern windows were also installed on that side.

Like so many Devon farms, Combe is some distance from the road. There appear always to have been two ways leading to the farm, one from Combe Lane and one from Heath Lane. But the former was originally a back way, whereas now it is the main way into the property. The change was probably made at the time that the land was sold off in the 1960s. The avenue of trees along the old way in can still be seen. There is a story of a secret tunnel between Combe and the neighbouring farm of North Beer. However, this sounds extremely unlikely. Not only is there no reason for such a tunnel, but the ground is heavy clay, very hard to work.

So far nothing has been traced in the archives to show who lived at Combe after Alexander atte Coombe, or who built the present house or added the kitchen wing. Combe was part of the Manor of Spreyton, which appears to have passed briefly in the 16th century to the Courtenay family of Powderham Castle, descendants of the Earls of Devon and major landowners in the county. The Courtenays appear to have disposed of their interest in the rest of the Spreyton Manor properties, but they kept hold of Combe for some reason. A deed of 1672 indicates that in that year Sir William Courtenay of Powderham Castle conveyed the “messuage” (dwelling) of Coombe to James Courtenay of Powderham, Hugh Stafford of Pines and Edmund Pollexfen of Plymouth (Stafford and Pollexfen would have been trustees and this conveyance was no doubt some sort of family arrangement, perhaps part of a marriage settlement). The tenant at the time of the conveyance was William Man – the Mans being a big Spreyton family in the 17th century. Contemporary Courtenay rent rolls in the Devon Record Office show William Man of Spreyton (the Courtenays’ only tenant in the village) paying rent of £2 per annum. By 1681, According to the records of the Overseers of the Poor, Thomas Dyer had replaced William Man as the tenant, but Dyer disappears from the lists after only a few years, so there must have been yet another change of tenant after that (in 1696, the churchwardens record that Frances Dyer, widow, was “buried in Woollen” – as a protectionist measure, 17th century Acts of Parliament required the deceased to be buried in English woollen shrouds rather than foreign textiles).

As regards the ownership of Coombe, it seems to have passed to Richard Hole, a rich cleric from North Tawton, who probably purchased it from the Courtenays in the late 17th or early 18th century. Hole owned much other property in Spreyton and nearby and no doubt acquired Combe to consolidate his holdings. By the mid-18th century, however, the big estates were being broken up and the individual farms being sold off to yeoman farmers who actually worked the land themselves. Richard Hole sold several of his farms around this time, including Combe, giving 2,000-year lease of the property (effectively a freehold interest) in 1758 to a Mark Cann – probably the Mark Cann who owned Bush. Another name associated with Combe around this time is that of Elisha Powlesland. He took apprentices to work at Combe in both 1742 and 1771. He must have been the tenant when Mark Cann purchased the property, and there are some indications in the documents that he then purchased the freehold (or rather the remainder of the 2000-year lease. The Powleslands also had the nearby farm of Powlesland in South Tawton, and it is not clear in which farmhouse Elisha lived.

According to the land tax records, by 1780 the property had been acquired by John Brock, thus ushering in one of the more stable periods in the farm’s history, as the Brocks were to stay there for over a hundred years. The Brocks were a large family, well represented in several neighbouring parishes, and it is not clear where this particular John Brock came from, or even if he actually lived at Combe in the early years. But his successor William Brock (presumably either his son or his nephew) seems to have lived at Combe from the time of his marriage in 1797, as his children were all christened in Spreyton church. William Brock stayed there until his death in 1839. He is buried in Spreyton churchyard and his gravestone survives. He also left a detailed will providing for the various members of his family. He bequeathed Combe to his eldest son, another William. But William had left home some years before (probably on his marriage) for another farm, and it appears that the youngest son, John, was the only one at home at the time of his father’s death. The testator presumably did not want to see John turfed out of Combe immediately, so he provided for John to have a year’s lease of Combe (in fact he stayed there at least three years with his widowed mother).

William Brock junior died in 1862, and in turn left the farm to his son George. The latter was the last of the Brock family to farm Combe. By 1891 he had moved away from Spreyton. Combe was let, first to Thomas Howard and then to Stephen Haggadon. George died in 1916 and is also buried in Spreyton churchyard, so he clearly kept his links with the parish. He bequeathed Combe to his son Seward Brock with instructions to sell it to pay the legacies in his will, and in 1918 Combe was sold to Gilbert Osborn from the neighbouring parish of Bow. He remained there until 1939, when he retired to Clyst Honiton. He retained ownership of the farm, however, and it was again let, to James Ponsford. Osborn’s daughter finally sold the farm in 1967, the same year that electricity was brought to Combe (most of the rest of Spreyton had been electrified in 1955).

The farm of Combe was probably always a large one. It is listed as having 171 acres of land in the 1842 tithe apportionment (50 acres of reasonable land was normally considered enough to live on), and needed a number of farm workers to keep it going, as well as female servants to help the farmer’s wife with her various tasks – making butter and cheese, etc. As can be seen from the census, some of these workers, especially the younger ones who were apprentices, lived in the house with the family. Combe Moor cottages were part of the Combe estate, and also accommodated up to four families. As the census shows William and George Brock farming 200 acres, they presumably were also renting other land nearby.

In the 20th century, Combe suffered the fate of so many farms in the area, with its successive owners gradually selling off the land until now all that is left of the estate is the house and eight acres immediately round it. Gilbert Osborn, during his tenure, actually added to his land by purchasing in 1920 a narrow slip of land just the other side of the farm’s boundary (and Spreyton parish boundary) on the river Yeo, between the river and Itton Lane. The land was a sliver cut from the South Tawton farm of Justment. But in 1926 he sold a large chunk of the land and the further cottage at Combe Moore, reducing the acreage of the farm to some 130 acres. When the Osborns sold the farm in 1967, the new owner sold most of the rest of the fields to neighbouring farmers, leaving only some eight acres round the house.

Although Combe was not one of the farms held directly by the Lord of the Manor of Spreyton, its owner did owe an annual rent of 6s.6d. to the Lord of the Manor, in common with a number of other farms similarly placed. These rents mostly dated back to medieval times, although sometimes in the 17th and 18th centuries when landowners sold farms on leases of 1,000 or 2,000 years, they also wrote into the deed a right to a perpetual rent. The right to these rents could itself be bought and sold, and the right to the rent from Combe passed in 1804 to the Lambert Gorwyn family of Spreyton. Most landowners had given up collecting these tiny rents by the 19th century, but the singularly unpleasant George Lambert Gorwyn of Coffins (1818-1885) insisted on collecting the rents due to him until the end of his life. The rent for Combe seems at some point to have been forgotten about for a few years, and when in the 1850s George Lambert Gorwyn tried to collect it, William Brock refused to pay up.There followed long legal proceedings, which certainly cost George Lambert Gorwyn far more than he could ever have ever received by way of rent, but in the end he appears to have won the case, as the documents indicate that he did later continue to collect his 6s.6d. from the occupants of Combe.

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OCCUPANTS OF COMBE AS SHOWN IN THE CENSUS

1841: John Brock, farmer, aged 29; his mother Jane Brock aged 67 (born in Chagford), of independent means; George Brock, aged 5; William Knapman (age 25), Robert Olding (21), George Turner(14) and George Ingerson (12), agricultural labourers (the last was probably an apprentice); and Elizabeth Hooper, age 15, servant.

1851: William Brock age 53, farmer of 200 acres employing 7 labourers; his wife Mary Ann (née Dicker) age 50; unmarried children Agnes (aged 20); George (aged 18);William (age 15); and Richard (age 7); Jane Dunning Brock age 5, a visitor to the household; a “general servant” aged 30 (Sarah Troneman?) age 30; and five “farm servants” (i.e. farm workers): George Mansfield(?) aged 21;John Baker aged 18; George White aged 17;James Mudge aged 16; and John Puddicombe aged 15.

1861: William Brock, age 63, farmer of 200 acres employing 3 labourers, 2 boys and 2 women; his wife Mary Ann, age 61; his unmarried son George, age 28; Eliza Wonnacott, house servant age 16;William Curson, farm servant age 14; and George Long, farm servant age 12. Three older farm labourers were living with their families at Combe Moore cottages.

1871: George Brock, age 38, farmer of 202 acres employing 6 labourers and 2 boys; his wife Caroline aged 29 (born in Whitstone); their children Emily (aged 5); Seward (age 3); and Kate (age 6 months); George’s mother Mary Ann aged 71, described as annuitant; Martha Brock aged 19, a visiting cousin; and farm servants “indoors” (meaning they lived in the house) John Long aged 19; James Cann aged 18; and Robert Tremlett aged 10; and Anna Ballamy aged 18, general servant. There were also two older farm labourers living at Combe Moor Cottages with their families (and one cottage unoccupied).

1881: George Brock age 47, farmer of 181 acres employing 3 labourers and three boys; his wife Caroline aged 40;Anne Reynolds, general servant aged 17; and 3 farm servants marked as “indoor”: William Tozer aged 20; Henry Ballamy aged 16; and Samuel Reynolds aged 15 (probably the brother of Anne). Three farm labourers (John Long, John Collacott and Samuel White) and their families were also living at Combe Moore Cottages.

1891: Thomas Howard, aged 47, farmer; his wife Mary and children William, Mary, Thomas, Susan and Samuel; William Lang, aged 63, boarder living on his own means; Thomas Howard’s niece Bessie Bristow; and farm servants William Reynolds, aged 30, and John Martin aged 23.

1901: [appears to have been omitted from the census]

1911: Stephen Haggadon, farmer aged 46, born in Baratton Clovelly; his wife Ann aged 46; a daughter; a boarder and a servant.

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DOCUMENTS IN THE ARCHIVES RELATING TO COMBE

Courtenay rent rolls of 1647-90 show they were receiving rent from William Man in Spreyton of £2 per annum. DRO ref: 1588M Tavistock 4.

Lease of 21.2.1672 (part of a “lease and release” conveying the freehold) by which Sir William Courtenay of Powderham Castle leased the “messuage” of Coombe in Spreton, now or late in the tenure of William Man, to James Courtenay of Powderham, Hugh Stafford of Pines and Edmund Pollexfen of Plymouth. The release is missing.

DRO ref: D1508/Moger/437

Lease and release of 5 and 6 March 1758: Arthur Kelly of Kelly conveys to John Cann the younger, gentleman, for £30 all his ¼of Manor and Lordship of Spreyton and all the high and chief rents:

• 3s 3d from Coombe
• 1s 9d from Bigbeare, then in the possession of John Tremayne Esq
• 6d from Puddicombe Park;
• 1s from Heath
• 3d from Bigbeare then or lat late in the possession of Thomas Hore Esq
• 3d from East Bigbeare
• 1 ½ d from West Bigbeare
• 2 ½ d from Down’s Bigbeare
• ¼ one pair gloves from Croft

Kelly undertakes to produce an indenture of 17.10 Anne 3 between Arthur Kelly on the one hand and William Hancock of Hendra and William Harris of Hayne. From Abstract of Title of Rebecca Cann to ¼ Manor of Spreyton and of Manor of Fursham in Drwest and Hitt. DRO: ref: Z3/Box 14

Will of William Brock of Coombe in Spreyton, yeoman, dated 1938

The will begins by referringto his 1797 marriage settlement that provides inter alia for trustees to pay an annuity of £20 to the testator’s widow after his death and to allow her to occupy a dwelling-house at Combe, formerly a malt-house, and a garden called Moor Garden. It notes that the testator was still occupying Coombe, which consisted of some 150 acres. It bequeaths inter alia:

• to his son George: £500, chargeable on Coombe;
• to his son John: a year’s tenancy of Coombe at a rent of £50; and also for that year the income from the Great Tithes accruing out of Coombe, that were purchased by the testator many years ago from John Cann Esquire of Fuidge. The property then goes to his son William;
• to his wife Jane Brock if she survives him, one bed and one thing of a sort of all his other household goods and furniture, to be chosen by her;
• to his son John: the residue of his estate, including all his freehold and leasehold estate not bequeathed to others. John is named executor.

DRO.

Case Gorwyn v. Brock 1852-4 over rent due out of Coombe

(1) Writ of summons for 1.5.1852 addressed to William Brock, late of Westwood (Crediton) and now of Coombe, Spreyton, for an action of debt brought by George Lambert Gorwyn.

(2) Instructions to Counsel (Walter Oke Edge of Temple). Plaintiff George Lambert claims 8 years arrears (1843-51) of a conventionary rent of 3s.3d. a year out Coombe, which the defendant (Brock) holds for the residue of a 2,000 year term. Richard Hole was seized in fee of Coombe (among other premises) and by an indenture of 13 October 1758 he demised it to Mark Cann for 2,000 years, under the several rents in the schedule, including the 3s.3d for Coombe. By a deed of 28 and 29.9.1800 (which recites the last deed), Hole’s representatives conveyed the reversion in fee and the chief rent to John Lambert Gorwyn, and JLGsold them on by deeds of 14 and 15.10.1800 to George Cann, who bequeathed them to GLG, who bequeathed them to the plaintiff. The defendant succeeded to the estate on the death of his father, and is anyway in possession as owner. No proof of payment of the rent to GLG the grandfather, but on 5.2.1838 the defendant’s father paid 1 ¾years’ rent, amounting to 5s.6d due Michaelmas 1837. In 1839, John Brock, brother of the plaintiff, then living with his father, paid 2 years rent. In 1844, the defendant settled an account for 4 years rent to Michaelmas 1843. Since then, no payment made. A case failed in the County Court because the defendant claimed the title was in question. Claimant now wants to go to a higher court. Another deed in the plaintiff’s possession relating to other conventionary rents under the same title, indicates that it is likely that the demise contained a covenant by the devisee to pay the conventionary rent. Counsel’s Opinion dated 16.12.1852 is written on the bottom.

(3) Further Opinion of 11.2.1853 by same Counsel.The instructions show that the rent in question is a freehold rent, not a reserved rent upon covenant, so he is doubtful if an action for recovery; the only remedy being distress. He recognises that an action might be begun as a way of persuading the defendant to pay, but comments ‘that the sum at stake is so small that expense upon mere speculation is a thing to be avoided’.

(4) Instruction to Counsel 20.10.1854 in the case of Gorwyn v. Brock. Counsel has already advised that it is a rent in gross but it is probably a conventionary rent; can the claimant get the defendant to produce the deed with the covenant. Counsel’s Opinion (at the bottom, dated 1854) says that a judge could order this.

(5) Draft of letter, possibly to do this case, complaining that the recipient has resorted to the statute of limitations in order not to pay the chief conventionary rent of the property he holds. The writer says he will draw this defence to the attention of all his friends and he will withdraw his summons and not appear at Court.5 documents. George Lambert Gorwyn apparently did pursue and win the case, as he later collected rent from Coombe.

DRO: Lambert Estate Papers.

Lease of 3.5.1902 whereby George Brock, yeoman of Langford, Bow leases Coombe Farm in Spreyton to Stephen Haggadon of Coombe Farm on a yearly rent from 25.3.1902 for £125, plus £10 for every acre of meadow, orchard or old pasture land broken up by the tenant contrary to the covenant in the lease. The farm comprises 174 acres. The lessor reserves timber and quarrying rights, including “particularly such of sand and stones in the stream as may be required by the lessor, the lessee not being allowed to break the veins or bars across the stream”, with liberty for the lessor to enter the property to “dig, search for and carry away such of the said sand and stone as he may require”. “All game and rabbits and ground game are subject to the provisions of the Ground Game Act 1880, and liberty for the lessor, his friends, servants and agents and others whom he may permit to hunt, shoot and sport over the said devised premises”. He must “till Ten acres of clover ley land” in the last year then in course for wheat. Potatoes, mangold, enter the premises after “the first day of November to enter thereupon and gutter and water the watered meadows on the said premises, which shall not afterwards be stocked with any cattle except sheep”. Husbandry practices are also specified. Any vacancies in the orchard must be replaced with “young thriving trees”, and the tenant must not depasture the orchard “with any cattle except sheep, horses and pigs, the pigs to be properly ringed”. Interior of the premises was the responsibility of the tenant, but landlord was responsible for the walls, doors, floors and the timber work, iron and slate of the roofs. The tenant must constantly reside at the premises. There are references to cottages and gardens belonging to the estate. The tenant has liberty to use the threshing machine, chaff cutter and cider pound on the premises.

(Document in private hands.)

Conveyance of 30.9.1918 between (1) Seward Brock of Yondacott in Shobrooke; (2) Caroline Brock, widow of Whipton Barton near Exeter; and (3) John Gilbert Osborn of Langford, Bow. George Brock, late of Langford, was possessed of the freehold of Combe Farm in Spreyton (containing about 174 acres) at the time of his death on 17.9.1916. In his will dated 19.6.1914 he appointed his son Seward Brock as his executor and bequeathed to him his real estate, subject to an annuity of £50 payable out of the estate to George’s widow Caroline.The will was proved on 3.11.1916. Seward now conveys Combe to J.G. Osborn for £3,425. Caroline is a party to the deed, as she has agreed to release the state from the requirement to pay the annuity. A schedule of fields and a map are appended to the conveyance. (Document in private hands.)

Conveyance of 9.1.1920 whereby Ernest May of De Bathe, North Tawton conveys to John Gilbert Osborn of Combe Farm, farmer, 8 ½ acres of land, part of Justment Farm in South Tawton, for the sum of £140. The conveyance also refers to various earlier deeds:

• Conveyance of 8.4.1891 whereby John Powlesland conveys Justment to William Arthur Knapman;
• Conveyance of 17.11.1905 whereby W.A. Knapman conveys Yendacott or Endacott and part of Justment farms to Richard Quance.
• Mortgage of 18.11.1905 secured on the properties, made between Richard Quance and John Pope.
• Conveyance and release of heriots, Chief Rents and Manorial Rights in respect of the two properties by (1) Herbert Arthur Fulford and William Orchard to (2) Richard Quance.
• Reconveyance of 4.10.1915 of the two properties by John Pope to Richard Quance.
• Conveyance of 5.10.1915 of the two properties by Richard Quance to Ernest May.
• Mortgage of 6.10.1915 secured on the properties between Ernest May and William Ash.
• Transfer of mortgage of28.9.1918 between (1) William Ash and (2) Ernest May and (3) Louisa Knapman.
• Reconveyance between Annie Mortimer and Ellen Knapman and Ernest May.

The deed also shows a map of the land conveyed, which is a narrow strip between the River Yeo and Itton Moor Lane, OS Nos. 1015 (3.016); 1070 (.589); 1071 (1.034); 1072 (1.579); and 1074 (2.296)

(Document in private hands.)

Declaration of 18.3.1967.Frank Gerrard of Heath Manor Farm declared that field No 56 (on the Ordnance Survey map) was in the map attached to the 1918 conveyance but omitted by mistake from the schedule. It had as long as he could remember been part of Coombe farmed by the Osborns. He also declared that the front access to the farm was by way of a track situate on the south-west side of the north-east boundary fence of the said field numbered 56 on the OS Map and then on the south-west side of the north-eastern fence of the field numbered 45 on the OS map. (Document in private hands)

Declaration of 5.11.1985.Frank Gerrard of Heath Manor Farm, Coombe Lane, declared that the land with the Ordnance Survey number No 18, 0.732 acres in extent, was included in the plan of the 1918 conveyance but omitted by mistake from the schedule. (Document in private hands)

FIELDS BELONGING TO COMBE IN 1842 (AT THE TIME OF THE TITHE APPORTONMENT SURVEY) and in 1918

*Numbers in brackets refer to acreages at the time of the 1918 conveyance. Quite a few hedges have disappeared and not all the fields on the two lists have been reconciled.