Rugh Combe (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Rughcombe; Roughcombe; Ruscombe

In the civil parish of West Tisbury.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST927296
Latitude 51.06689° Longitude -2.10436°

Rugh Combe has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Thomas West obtained, in 1327, licence to crenellate his 'mansum' at Rugh Combe, Wiltshire. The West family became the Lords de la Warre.

RUGHCOMBE CASTLE (11 S. vii. 327). This was a crenellated house in the parish of Tisbury, Wiltshire, and all that is known about it will be found in Hoare's ' History of Wiltshire,' vol. v., Dunworth Hundred, p. 130 et seq. Licence to crenellate it was granted by patent 1 Edward III. (Fry)

Roughcombe was presumably a small settlement in the late 13th century when a surname was derived from it, a manor house was called Roughcombe in the early 14th century, and Roughcombe manor apparently included several tenements and a mill in the later 14th century. By the 16th century all those buildings may have been abandoned. The name Roughlawn, in use in 1716 and applied to an area north of Newtown, suggests that the land of Roughcombe may have been divided among the farms north-east of Newtown with 'Lawn' in their names: if so, in the 14th century Roughcombe may have stood beside Oddford brook.
Walter of Roughcombe (fl. 1275–82) and John of Roughcombe (fl. 1317) may have held the land called ROUGHCOMBE which belonged to Sir Thomas West (d. 1343) in 1327. West was then licensed to crenellate his house there. His son Sir Thomas (d. 1386) had a park called Roughcombe which he enlarged between 1376 and 1379 (Cal. Pat. 1374–7, 287). (VCH)

The next grant is to Thomas West, in the first year of Edward III. (1327), to crenellate his house at "Rugh Combe, Wilts," now Ruscombe, a parish in a portion of Wiltshire, isolated in the county of Berks, north-east of Reading. The living of Rugh Combe was formerly a peculiar, under the jurisdiction of the Dean of Salisbury. (Peacock 1889)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1327 June 18 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 695
  Crowley, D.A. (ed), 1987, 'Parishes: Tisbury' VCH Wiltshire Vol. 13 online transcription
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 408 online copy
  Hoare, R.C., 1829, The history of modern Wiltshire Vol. 5 Dunworth Hundred p. 130-
Periodical Articles
- Fry, E.A., 1913, Aug 9, Notes and Queries Series 11 Vol. 8 p. 118 online copy
  Peacock, E., 1889, 'Licence to Crenellate' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 24 p. 128 online copy (incorrected identification as Ruscombe, Berkshire)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1891, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1327-30) Vol. 1 p. 130 online copy

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