Combe Florey House in Combe Florey,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

dating from the early 18th century. It replaced an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

which was pulled down after the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. The gatehouse to the original manor survives. In the mid-20th century, the house was home to the writer

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

who died there in 1966 and is buried next to the

churchyard In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...

of the adjacent Church of St Peter & St Paul. Combe Florey House is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

History

The original house at Combe Florey was an

manor built by John Fraunceis. This manor was demolished after the

but the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

remains. In the early 18th century John Fraunceis' descendant, William Fraunceis built a new house on a site further up the hillside from the gatehouse. The house passed out of the ownership of the Fraunceis family in 1799. In 1955 the novelist

determined to sell his home,

Piers Court Piers Court is a country house in Stinchcombe on the Cotswold Edge in Gloucestershire, England. A Grade II* listed building, in the mid-20th century the court was home to the novelist Evelyn Waugh. History The present house was built by John Wa ...

in Gloucestershire. Having viewed a range of alternatives, Waugh alighted on the hamlet of Combe Florey in Somerset, where Combe Florey House was for sale. Waugh considered that "it has possibilities of beautification", writing to his close friend

Nancy Mitford Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973) was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford family#Mitford sisters, Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the ...

, "If only I were a

pansy The garden pansy (''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana'') is a type of polychromatic large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section ''Melanium'' ("the pansies") of the ge ...

without family cares I could make it a jewel." Waugh's offer of £7,500 for the house was accepted in September 1956. Waugh lived at Combe Florey for the next ten years. It was not a happy decade; becoming increasingly reclusive and paranoid, Waugh was nevertheless able to undertake some substantial work, including his biography of

Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an ...

. Waugh died at the house on

Easter Day Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the N ...

1966. He was buried just outside of the churchyard of the Church of St Peter & St Paul in a

ha-ha A ha-ha ( or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view of the lan ...

which separates the house from the church. Combe Florey was bought from Waugh's widow, Laura, by his son, Auberon who lived at the house until his own death in 2001. In 2008 the house was sold by his family. As of 2022, Combe Florey House was again for sale. In conjunction with his friend,

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...

, Waugh assembled an important collection of furniture by the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

art-architect

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...

at Combe Florey. In a letter to his daughter Margaret Fitzherbert dated 30 June 1965 he wrote; "The William Burges furniture has arrived. The

settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an in ...

looks very well between the windows of the morning room. The wardrobe, not so beautiful, but quite suitable opposite the

washstand A washstand or basin stand is a piece of furniture consisting of a small table or cabinet, usually supported on three or four legs, and most commonly made of mahogany, walnut, or rosewood, and made for holding a wash basin and water pitcher. Th ...

. The gilt gothic whatever-it-is has had to go to the attics." The Narcissus washstand, which had been previously at Piers Court, formed the basis of Waugh's novel, ''

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold ''The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold'' is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in July 1957. It is Waugh's penultimate full-length work of fiction, which the author called his "mad book"—a largely autobiographical account ...

''.

Architecture and description

Combe Florey House dates from 1730. Of five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

and two

storeys A storey (Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK, CAN) and ''storie ...

, it is built of

Red sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains, cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed o ...

. Julian Orbach, in his 2014 revised volume, ''Somerset: South and West'', in the Pevsner Buildings of England series, notes the "Gibbsian" influence on the design of the house. Combe Florey is a

. The Elizabethan gatehouse is listed at Grade II*, while an adjacent

wellhead A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...

dating from the late 18th century is listed at Grade II.

Gallery

Combe Florey - near the Old Manor House - geograph.org.uk - 904793.jpg, The village of Combe Florey Gatehouse at Combe Florey - geograph.org.uk - 1638117.jpg, The gatehouse at Combe Florey House Church of StPeter and StPaul.jpg, The Church of St Peter & St Paul Evelyn Waugh Grave.jpg, The grave of Evelyn Waugh Auberon Waugh's grave, Combe Florey - geograph.org.uk - 1065906.jpg, The grave of Auberon Waugh

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * {{cite book , last= Waugh , first=Evelyn , editor=Mark Amory , title= The Letters of Evelyn Waugh , publisher= Phoenix , location= London , year= 1995 , orig-date=1980 , isbn= 1-85799-245-8 , ref={{sfnRef, Amory, 1995 Country houses in Somerset Grade II listed houses in Somerset Grade II* listed buildings in Taunton Deane