Combe Royal

Combe Royal is a Victorian house with a notable garden in a deep Devon combe. The lower garden, largely planted with giant rhododendrons, still exists, but little remains of the elaborate Victorian layout around the house. The 1906 and 1907 Ordnance Survey maps show extensive woodland with a series of walks south-east of Coombe Royal, and a long drive from the lodge above Lower Combe Royal.

The garden was featured in the Journal of Horticulture in 1871, when its orangery was described as growing varieties of orange, lemons, limes and shaddocks, unprotected except for reed mats in severe weather. This ‘orangery' is actually a large free-standing, south-facing wall with an arcade of chamfered 4-centred arches of dressed slate. Inside the arches there are alternative courses of red brick stretchers and brick-on-edge. At the west end there is a blind ninth bay. This listed wall has survived, although it is now bare of plants. It is, as far as is known, the only one surviving in Britain, though there may have been one similar in Barnstaple.

The garden was renowned for the early study of citrus fruit. Combe Royal oranges were sent to Queen Victoria in the 1860s 'who afterwards sent her head gardener from Osborne for the purpose of enquiring on the spot as to the mode of culture.' (Fox. I 864)

The property has been owned by Devon County Council for some years and is used as an office by the Social Services Department. By 1999 the woodland walks were overgrown and the citrus wall was buried under brambles and undergrowth which were cleared away by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. There is a structural problem in the far east bay.

Type

Garden

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Civil

Period

Victorian (1837-1901)

Survival

Part: standing remains

Open to the public

Yes

Civil Parish

West Alvington