Combpyne
Combpyne is located within East Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Axminster Hundred. It falls within Honiton Vol 1 Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 141 in 1801 101 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £01/16/02.
A parish history file is held in Seaton Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image below is of the Combpyne area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 84/5 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 84NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SY290924. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SY29SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 029, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 193. Geological sheet 326 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Combpyne as included in the Library's illustrations collection. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
COMBPYNE has an interesting church (St. Mary the Virgin), mainly 13th century, with a saddle-back tower. Some changes were made in the early 14th cent., and again in the 15th century when new windows were inserted in the nave. The fittings and glass are the result of the restoration of 1878. The church retains a chalice and paten of pre-Reformation date (c. 1500), still in regular use.
Rousdon, now united with Combpyne for all purposes, was a small parish on the cliff edge. The ancient church of St. Pancras having fallen into ruin, it was rebuilt at the cost of Sir H. W. Peek in 1872. It has nothing to commend it. The mansion of Rousdon was built for Sir H. W. Peek, and is a rich man's Tudor. Since 1937 it has been occupied by Allhallows School, who came here from Honiton. The cliff scenery is fine, with great landslips.
Mr. G.B.Jones, a Combpyne resident who taught at Allhallows from 1966-92, added the following update in 2005: Allhallows School bought the Rousdon Estate in 1937 and moved there from Honiton in 1938. However the School (by then retitled Allhallows College) closed in December 1998. After a period in Receivership the Estate was bought by a Developer and is now private housing.
