Source/Archive record SEM8604 - Ashcombe 'Grotto', Simonsbath: A detailed assessment of the fabric and discussion of comparator sites

Exmoor National Park Authority owns a small subterranean building which is set into the riverbank below White Rock Cottage in Ashcombe, Simonsbath. The structure has been variously described as an ice house (Burton 1994), a grotto (South West Archaeology 2015) or cold store. In recent years there has been a focus on attempting to understand the designed landscape which John Knight began in Ashcombe in the 1820s and the part that White Rock Cottage played in that design. Inevitably the question has been raised as to whether the subterranean building formed part of such a scheme. In order to resolve this, the stonework of the structure was cleaned in autumn 2016 and a detailed assessment of the fabric carried out by Dr Stuart Blaylock. To put the building in context, Simon Bonvoisin (Nicholas Pearson Associates) was asked to examine the building in terms of other comparator sites. The results of these two pieces of work are presented together, below. In conclusion it is felt that the subterranean building was built as a cold store, but that it almost certainly formed part of a coherent composition of practical buildings (along with White Rock Cottage, a gardeners’ store and a bridge) that formed a backdrop to one aspect of John Knight’s picturesque gardens in Ashcombe. The building – in its original form – would have appeared as a plain stone elevation with two arches visible, and two simple small rectangular windows below. Much of the elevation has been rebuilt, possibly as recently as 1952 following the flood disaster on Exmoor.