Description

COMBE MARTIN HIGH STREET, Combe Martin
SS 54 NE
1/74 The Pack of Cards including
- courtyard walls incorporating bee-
9.3.53 boles on north-west side
GV II*
Public house. Early C18. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Slate roofs. Tall
rendered stacks with drips to each of the four corners of the third and fourth
stages of the central block. Wrought iron balustrade to top stages.
Elaborate symmetrical plan consisting of a tall rectangular central block reducing
to a square through 5 storeys, with 3 storey aisled wings with gabled ends
projecting to each side. The first three stages have principal rooms in the wings
leading off corridors running right through the central block which has a 2-storey
virtually free standing porch to south-east front and first floor access to north-
east entrance facing road.
5-storey central block with 3 storey wings. South-east front has virtually free-
standing two-storey porch supported on 8 Tuscan columns, with central Venetian
window with Y glazing bars to the upper storey. Single casement windows to each of
the stages of the central block above the porch, except top stage. Slate sundial to
left of the middle 3-light window. All the window openings to each side of the
central block have been infilled except to top stage. The gable end of the right-
hand projecting wing has symmetrical 1:2:1 disposition of 12-paned sashes to first 2
storeys and single sash to the third storey central gable, above which is a
polygonal sundial. The left-hand wing is identical except that there are no outer
sashes to the ground floor. North-east side facing road has Venetian style window
with Y-glazing bar above first floor entrance to central block which has bracketted
pedimented canopy with engaged pilasters and 6 panelled door. The courtyard wall on
the north-west side incorporates 2 tiers of 6 straight-headed bee-boles with
slightly rounded pilastered niches.
Interior: despite C20 alterations to the ground floor, most of the joinery and
moulded cornices have been retained. The first and second floors are unspoilt, with
decorative plaster ceilings to the principal first floor room in the left-hand wing
and to the through-corridor. Both corridors are panelled as is the central room on
the third floor where Marie Corelli reputedly wrote "The Mighty Atom". All the
principal rooms have moulded plaster cornices, and good quality raised and fielded
panelling joinery survives throughout.
The inn was reputedly built as a private house by George Ley following a spectacular
win at gambling, the number of original windows, doorways, chimneys etc., each
reflecting the component features of a pack of cards.

Listing NGR: SS5833646722

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Pack o' Cards at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17532399

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)