About Us
About Combe Lancey Farmhouse
Welcome to Combe Lancey Farmhouse a charming 12th century manor, set within 70 acres of lush farmland in the heart of Devon. Our tranquil location offers easy access to Exeter, Dartmoor and Exmoor. Whether you are looking to explore the countryside or simply relax in comfort, Combe Lancey is the perfect place.
Combe Lancey is a working sheep and cattle farm of 70 acres. Public Footpaths provide easy walking access of 1 mile to Sandford and Crediton, the latter over the Hill. In the outer Farm-yard and when walking through the countryside please always be aware of farm-equipment and that animals are present. Parents should be mindful of children. Guests are welcome to wander around and sit in the gardens.
Farm
Combe Lancey is a working sheep and cattle farm of 70 acres. Public Footpaths of about 1 mile each provide walking access to Sandford and Crediton, the latter over the Hill. In the outer Farm-yard and when walking through the countryside please always be aware of farm-equipment and that animals are present. Parents should be mindful of children. Guests are welcome to wander around the Gardens.
House
The Manor of “Comb” (meaning a wooded valley, now Combe Lancey) was an estate within the Bishop of Exeter’s large Anglo-Saxon Manor of Cridie (Crediton). In the early 1100’s, Warelwast Bishop of Exeter, formed four of these estates into one Knight’s Fee, consisting of the Manors of Comb, Sakynton/Sakemanneton (near Priorton), Durisse (Dowrich), and Stowford (South Molton), which he granted to William de Tracy, Lord of the Barony of Bradninch, and which by 1166 was held by William’s grandson, also William de Tracy, one of the four assassins of Thomas Becket in 1170. Following Becket’s assassination, the Crown seized de Tracy’s estates; and the Barony of Bradninch with its associated manors was absorbed into the Duchy of Cornwall. De Tracy had sub-granted the four Manors to the de Launcells family, prominent in north Cornwall and north-west Devon, whose ancestor was reputedly a Norman knight who had come with William the Conqueror, and who had acquired the Celtic/Anglo-Saxon monastery of Lann-Cellys, now Launcells near Bude, Cornwall, from which their name derived. Their coat of arms was “Argent a chief Sable three lances in pale Counterchanged”. By 1199 Richard de Launcells, Sheriff of Devon, held the four Manors, and the Feudal Aids of 1285 record that Jocelinus de Launcells held the Manors of Comb, Sakynton & Stowford from the Count of Cornwall. Jocelin’s successors at Comb continued to retain control over part of Dowrich until the mid 16th century. The Manorial Court held at Comb survived until the mid 18th century.
By 1300 the Manor had assumed the family name as “Comb Lancelys”, held by Joceus de Launceles from Edmund Earl of Cornwall, and parts of the House possibly date from this time. In 1312 Edward II granted the Manor to Margaret, widow of the murdered Royal Favourite Piers Gaveston. In the 1370’s it was acquired from Hugh de Launcells by Sir Walter Cornu, Sheriff of Devon, and in 1376 was recorded as a property of Edward Prince of Wales ‘the Black Prince’. In 1389 the Prior of Plympton stated at the Bradninch Court that he held land at Priorton and Dowrich from Walter Cornu’s Manor of Combe Launcellys. By 1404 the Manor had been conveyed by the marriage of Walter’s daughter Margaret Cornu, widow of Robert Cruwys, to William Wilford, a wealthy merchant, and several times mayor of Exeter, whose family, subsequently owned it for over 150 years. In 1406 William Wilford purchased adjacent Froggemer, of c.35 acres. In 1448 the Manor was recorded as “Combelauncesellys”, and in 1476 as “Comblauncells”. By 1525 it had acquired its phonetic spelling of “Combelauncy”, recorded at 440 acres with 20 houses and gardens, reflecting its later designation as a “town-tything in Crediton”.
In the late-15th century William Wilford’s son, Robert, a Royal Commissioner, or his son and heir William (Escheator to the Crown and Mayor of Exeter 1511) re-constructed the earlier Manor House of the Launcells into the form seen today. Robert’s younger son James was a prominent Merchant Taylor and Alderman of the City of London in the early 1500’s and established a branch of the family in Kent. In 1525 William’s son and heir, Peter Wilford, placed the Manor into Trust for the Marriage Settlement of his daughter and sole heiress Joan, to Jasper Horsey, Steward to Ann of Cleves (fourth wife of King Henry VIII), and Chief Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry’s son Prince Edward. Jasper died at Hampton Court in 1546, his heir being his eldest son George Horsey, later MP, and Receiver-General of the Duchy of Lancaster. In the 1550’s the Manor was purchased by Robert Davye, a wealthy clothier of Crediton, see arms right, and the part of Dowrich held under Combe Lancey finally passed to the Dowrich family at the same time. In 1557 Robert Davye conveyed the Manors of Combelauncy and Canonteign to his second son Gilbert Davye, whose son, Robert, built the new family seat at Canonteign, whereby Combe Lancey avoided the great rebuilding of the late Elizabethan period, remaining as an extended lowland Long-house. The Davye-s leased several parts of the Manor (the Higher Comblauncye, the Middle Comblauncye, the Lower Combelauncye, & Frogmier) to John Haydon, Robert Philips, John Venicombe, Robert Collins, & Thomas Pinson.
By 1595 John Haydon’s son, Thomas, had married Robert Philips’ widow Mary, consolidating the Higher and Middle Comblauncye-s, and after Mary’s death married in 1626 Judith Hamlyn widow, daughter of Richard Mayne of Exeter see near arms right. Judith’s daughter, Mary Hamlyn, married 1629 Roger Tuckfield, who inherited Thomas Haydon’s long-leases of Comblauncye. The Deed dated 13 August 1623 of Gilbert Davye’s grandson, John Davye of Canonteign, records the first modern spelling of the Manor as “Combe Lancey”. In 1650 the association with the Duchy of Cornwall ceased. Early 17th century leases and indentures record the names of many of the small fields and closes within the manor. By the late 18th century these had been amalgamated into larger fields with mostly different names as seen today. Following the death in 1637 of Gilbert Davye’s great-granddaughter and heiress, Anne the wife of John Trelawny of Plymouth, the Manor passed by redemption of a mortgage to Gilbert’s nephew, Sir John Davie 1st Baronet of Creedy, and Sheriff of Devon. In 1652 he renewed the Tuckfields’ long-leases on the Higher & Middle/Lower Comblauncye-s, and his heirs later leased Frogmier to Edward Skinner. The Tuckfields possessed the Higher and Lower Comblauncye-s for a further 110 years. In 1657 Roger Tuckfield acquired Raddon Court (Thorverton) and later his great-grandson inherited Little Fulford/Shobrooke. With the death of Elizabeth Tuckfield in 1763 the Davie family resumed their direct possession of the Manor and reamalgamated the Higher and Lower Combe Lancey-s into Combe Lancey Farm, centred on the old Manor House, while Frogmire became the Home Farm of the Creedy Estate. Combe Lancey was tenanted by a succession of farmers until the mid 20th century when, after 400 years of ownership, the Davie family sold the property.
A fairly comprehensive record of the inhabitants from about 1570 to date, together with apprentices from 1765, has survived and is included in the detailed “History of the Manor of Combe Lancey”. Today Combe Lancey is a 70 acre beef and sheep farm, centred on the old Manor House of the Launcells.
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Crediton info@combelancey.co.uk
EX17 4EA