Description

DARTMOUTH

SX8751 RIDGE HILL
673-1/5/211 (South side)
No.31
Combecote, Altamira and attached
gateway

II

Large house, now divided into 2 parts. Mid/late C18, with some
superficial modernisation in the 1840s and a modernisation and
extension from around the 1860s. According to the owners it
was the town house of the Newman family. Plastered stone
rubble, exposed to rear; end, axial and rear lateral stacks
with plastered brick chimneyshafts, some with pots; slate roof
with alternate crested ridge tiles.
PLAN: 2 parallel ranges, 2 rooms wide with central cross
passage, double-depth plan. The house was superficially
modernised, probably in the 1840s, and then, around the 1860s,
the right end was altered. The principal parlour was enlarged
and the extension given an end stack; a new entrance created
this end with a porch behind the parlour extension. The
stairwell was thus enlarged, and refurbished to create an
impressive entrance hall. The old back doorway to the passage
was evidently reduced to service use.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics; 5:3-window garden front. The
left 5-window section is the C18 house as modernised in the
1840s, and the actual windows, all horned sashes without
glazing bars, from the 1860s or even later. All first-floor
windows have stucco Tudor-style hoodmoulds. Central
round-headed doorway with a simple pedimented flat stucco
surround now contains a recessed C20 part-glazed door under a
plain fanlight. Plat band at first-floor level and moulded
eaves cornice to parapet. Twin roofs are gable-ended with tall
coping.
Front right end 3-window section from the 1860s; a canted bay
containing sashes without glazing bars, the front ground-floor
one is full height. Stucco plat band with moulded cornice at
first-floor level and first-floor windows have a continuous
sill; they interrupt a moulded string course, and above Tudor
arches rise into a flat eaves band. Same style is continued
round the right end to the entrance porch; large double
2-panel doors under an overlight. Windows with shallow
hoodmoulds including the triangular-headed windows in the end
gables. Rear wall (to the street) includes a round-headed C18
doorway to the passage; timber doorcase with pilasters to
fluted brackets carrying an open-pediment hood, it contains a
part-glazed 6-panel door under a plain fanlight. Also some
horned 12-pane sashes. The rear doorway is now from a service
courtyard enclosed by low service buildings.
INTERIOR: A great deal of C18 and C19 detail, including the
1860s entrance hall floored with a chequer pattern of red and
black tiles. Large open-well stair top-lit by a cupola
containing some coloured glass, and has large newel posts with
truncated pyramid finials and turned balusters. The main
parlour (front right) has an C18 Adam-style chimneypiece and
the arch knocked through to the C19 extension supported on
large columns of red marble with grey marble bases and
capitals. Plaster cornice is the same throughout the front
rooms and may be C18. Other C18 and C19 joinery and other
features around the house. Roof not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Front gateway: the stone rubble boundary
wall to the street is plastered as it curves into and ramps up
to the square-section gate piers with pineapple finials.
Gateway probably dates from the 1860s phase.

Listing NGR: SX8765851615

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580348

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)