Ashcombe Tower

Heritage listing

Details SX 97 NW ASHCOMBE 8/1 Ashcombe Tower - GV II Small country house. 1933-6 by Brian O'Rorke for Major Ralph Rayner, MP. The design incorporates a former folly, originally part of the Mamhead estate and possibly by Salvin, who designed Mamhead House in 1833. The folly is used as a water tower to the 1930s house. Local grey limestone, mostly plastered but with idiosyncratic rusticated dressings ; green Westmorland slate roofs, gabled at ends ; chimney stacks with rusticated stone rubble shafts. Of considerable interest stylistically, the exterior influenced by the Vernacular Revival and using traditional materials and a pitched roof, the interior fittings Modern Movement in style. Said to be the only private house by Brian O'Rorke. Plan: South-facing, overlooking the garden, with a forecourt and the principal entrance on the north side. The core of the house is an irregular H plan with west and east crosswings. Adjuncts to the H plan are a kitchen block to the north west, at right angles to the west crosswing and a former squash court to the north east, at right angles to the east crosswing. The 1830s tower is incorporated into the east crosswing at the rear (north). Principal living room ('the big room') in the centre, the east crosswing containing a morning room to the front (south), a study and the stair hall (in the base of the tower). The west crosswing has a dining room to the front with a loggia opening on to the garden and service rooms to the rear adjoining the kitchen block. Ground and first floor plans were published in Country Life in 1937 and there has been little alteration to the plan with the exception of the squash court, converted to domestic use, and 'the big room', which has been re- partitoned, creating an axial passage between the vestibule and

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.