A house of puzzles

''Holcombe Court, Devon, part I The home of Nigel Wiggins'' In the first of two articles, Roger White unravels the development of this magnificent Tudor house and discusses its rich internal decoration

- Roger White

IT is hard to quarrel with the claim that Holcombe Court is the finest Tudor house in Devon. The first sight of the building from the village street of Holcombe Rogus, set well back and framed in its gateway arch, is magnificent. It’s not on the scale of Hardwick or Longleat, but it is undoubtedly imposing. Built of purplish-grey Westleigh stone from a local quarry, combined with dressings of creamy Beer and Salcombe stone from the south coast, it’s also rooted in its locality and landscape.

The present building was largely created by the Bluett family, who had longstanding connections with Somerset—their funerary monuments and capacious Jacobean pew dominate the parish church immediately adjacent. The Bluetts came into possession of the property by marriage in 1427 and occupied it for the next four centuries.