Luscombe is an historic estate situated in the parish of

Rattery Rattery is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district, in the county of Devon, England, a few miles from the villages Buckfastleigh and neighbouring village Ashburton . The name has been suggested as a variant of Red Tree but is ment ...

in Devon.

History

''Loscume'' is an estate mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, not as a separate entry, but as an estate mentioned within the entry for the manor of

Dartington Dartington is a village in Devon, England. Its population is 876. The electoral ward of ''Dartington'' includes the surrounding area and had a population of 1,753 at the 2011 census. It is located to the west of the River Dart, south of Dar ...

. Dartington is listed in the Domesday Book as ''Dertrintone'', the 15th of the 17 Devonshire holdings of

William de Falaise William de Falaise (11th century), also called William of Falaise, was a Norman from Falaise, Duchy of Normandy, today in the Calvados department in the Lower Normandy region of north-western France. He became feudal baron of Stogursey in Somers ...

feudal baron A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely be ...

Stogursey Stogursey is a small village and civil parish in the Quantock Hills in Somerset, England. It is situated from Nether Stowey, and west of Bridgwater. The village is situated near the Bristol Channel, which bounds the parish on the north. The ...

, Somerset, one of the

Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the we ...

of King

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

. Luscombe comprised one furlong of land within the manor of Dartington and was held from William of Falaise by his tenant ''Ansketel''. Luscombe was later the seat of the Luscombe (originally ''de Luscombe'') family from before the 16th century to shortly before 1810. As was usual, the family had taken their surname from their seat. Shortly before 1810 it was sold by the Luscombe family to

Walter Palk Walter Palk (1742-1819), of Marley House (later renamed Syon Abbey) in the parish of Rattery, Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for his family's Pocket Borough of Ashburton in Devon from 1796 to 1811. He served as Sheriff of Devon ...

(1742-1819), MP for Ashburton (1796-1811), who had purchased the manor of Rattery together with several local estates, and built Marley House, a large Georgian country house, as his new seat within the parish of Rattery. It should not be confused with

Luscombe Castle Luscombe Castle is a country house situated near the resort town of Dawlish, in the county of Devon in England. Upon purchasing the land at Luscombe in 1797, Charles Hoare (banker), Charles Hoare demolished the existing house and commissioned a ...

, a 19th-century country house near

Dawlish Dawlish is a seaside resort town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Teignbridge district in Devon, England. It is located on the south coast of England at a distance of from the city of Exeter and a similar distance from the to ...

, about to the north-east. The artist Yasmin David lived at Luscombe for most of her life, from 1923 to her death in 2009.

References

{{coord, 50.460, -3.765, type:landmark_region:GB-DEV, display=title Historic estates in Devon