Hole House, one of the oldest properties in Branscombe, a fortified building that is dated to the Early Modern period, and studied by T. C. Lethbridge, a researcher in paranormal phenomena.
"Thomas Charles Lethbridge (23 March 1901 – 30 September 1971), better known as T. C. Lethbridge, was an English archaeologist, parapsychologist, and explorer. A specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, he served as honorary Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1923 to 1957, and over the course of his lifetime wrote twenty-four books on various subjects, becoming particularly well known for his advocacy of dowsing.
Born in Somerset to a wealthy family, Lethbridge was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, during the course of which he attended an expedition to Jan Mayen island, becoming part of the first group to successfully climb the Beerenberg. After a failed second expedition to the Arctic Circle, he became involved in archaeology. In his capacity as Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Lethbridge carried out excavations at various sites around Britain. His claims regarding the existence of Iron Age hill figures on Wandlebury Hill in Cambridgeshire caused significant controversy within the archaeological community, with most archaeologists believing that Lethbridge had erroneously misidentified a natural feature. Lethbridge's methodology and theories were widely deemed unorthodox, and in turn he became increasingly critical of the archaeological profession.
After resigning from the university museum in 1957, Lethbridge moved with his wife to Branscombe, Devon. There he devoted himself to researching paranormal phenomena, publishing a string of books on the subject aimed at a popular rather than academic audience. Most of this involved his research into the use of pendulums for dowsing, although in other publications he championed the witch-cult hypothesis of Margaret Murray, articulated the Stone Tape theory as an explanation for ghost sightings, and argued that extraterrestrial species were involved in shaping human evolution; in this he came to embrace and perpetuate the esoteric ideas of the Earth mysteries movement. Although his work in parapsychology was derided and ignored as pseudo-scientific by the academic establishment, he attracted a cult following, and his work was posthumously championed by esotericists like Colin Wilson and Julian Cope. In 2011 he was the subject of a biography by Terry Welbourn.
As a result of the widespread rejection of his Gogmagog claims, Lethbridge became increasingly critical of the academic and professional archaeological community, believing that an attitude of what he called "trade unionism" had caused most archaeologists to reject independent thought. As a result, he decided to resign and move away from Cambridge in late 1957. Relocating to Branscombe in east Devon, he and Mina set up home in Hole House, a fortified building that dated to the Early Modern period, and angered some of the locals by banning fox hunters from crossing his land. Lethbridge came to believe that Hole House was haunted, describing unexplained noises and smells there; this increased his interest in the paranormal, and he decided to devote much of his time to investigating such phenomena in what he deemed to be a scientific manner. Lethbridge believed that ghosts were projections stored in rock and other material substances and which echoed particularly emotional or traumatic events that either happened in the past or will happen in the future. He focused many of his experiments on dowsing using a pendulum, coming to believe that the length of string used and the number of oscillations could be used to determine the type of object being detected.
His first book on the subject of what he often termed "the odd" was Ghost and Ghoul, published in 1961 by Routledge and Kegan Paul. In this work he argued that the mind was separate from the brain; he believed that the mind was connected to an ancestral collective mind which everyone inherited. Many of the ideas expressed in the work were akin to those of Carl Jung, Richard Semon, and Amy Warburg, although it is not clear if Lethbridge had been aware of this beforehand. An extract was subsequently published in the January 1963 edition of Fantastic Stories of Imagination. He followed this work with Witches – Investigating an Ancient Religion (1962), which articulated a form of Murray's witch-cult hypothesis but also contained many digressions and anecdotes unrelated to that topic. Returning to the themes present in Ghost and Ghoul, Lethbridge published Ghost and Divining Rod in 1963, in which he discussed his progress with his pendulum experiments. On the basis of this, the BBC filmed a short documentary titled Ghost Hunting with T.C. Lethbridge in May 1964, in which Lethbridge was filmed repeating his pendulum experiences in his garden."
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There is a fuller story in his book T.C. Lethbridge: The Man Who Saw the Future [ISBN 1846945003]
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Having personally stayed at this property, I can honestly say that there were some odd happenings. Our dog would sometimes just get up and bark into thin air, as if someone were there. There were reports from other members in the party of bumps and noises in the night.
Myself (a sceptic) didn't really witness anything that could not be explained by reason. - But a lovely place, to which I'd love to return."Farmhouse. Early-mid C16, with C17 improvements, modernised circa 1960. The front is of coursed blocks of Beerstone ashlar; the rest is also Beerstone ashlar but not so neat and includes patches of stone rubble, the east wing includes a section of chequer pattern walling made up of small Beerstone blocks and knapped black flint; stone stacks with Beerstone ashlar chimneyshafts tile roof, formerly thatch. Plan: courtyard plan house. The main block faces south-south-east, say south, and is built down the hillslope. it has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. The uphill left (west) end is terraced into the hillslope. It is an inner room with a gable- end stack. Next to it is the hall with an axial stack at the upper end backing onto the inner room. Below the passage there is a lower end room (maybe a parlour) with a gable-end stack. A rear block projects at right angles behind each end room. The left or west wing has a gable-end stack and is thought to be the kitchen block. There is a lower north wing which nearly encloses the courtyard and this has been converted to a 2-room plan cottage. Since no internal inspection was available at the time of this survey it is not possible to interpret the layout of the house and its historical development in detail here. Nevertheless it is clear that the hall at least was originally open to the roof and the Devon SMR records the survival of the original "medieval" roof. Smoke-blackening from an open hearth fire is not mentioned but might be expected if the house is early C16 (or maybe late C15). The present house appears to be largely the result of a major mid or late C16 renovation and the rear wings might date from this time. The rear passage doorway is blocked by the east Wing. The rear (north) block was probably service rooms but all external evidence was removed or disguised in its conversion to the present cottage. The house is now 2 storeys throughout. Good exterior: irregular 3-window front. The ground floor left end window is a C20 casement containing diamond panes of leaded glass. The first floor windows are circa 1960 plate glass half dormers with hipped roofs. The other windows are C16; 3-light Beerstone windows with Tudor arch heads and hoodmoulds, they contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is right of centre and is a C16 Beerstone Tudor arch; it contains a C20 door. Directly above is a Beerstone plaque bearing the arms of the Holcombe family. The roof is gable-ended . To rear of the hall is a C16 full height 5-light window with moulded Beerstone mullions Tudor arch headed lights and sunken spandrels, all except the 1 blocked light containing rectangular panes of leaded glass and iron glazing bars. There are other smaller versions in both rear wings and a couple of probably C17 ovolo-moulded mullion Beerstone windows. The courtyard (northern) side of the east wing has an attractive chequer face of small cream-coloured Beerstone blocks and black flint. The present main doorway has been inserted into the right (east) end of the main block and contains a C20 door. Interior was not available for inspection at the time of this survey although a Tudor arch fireplace with moulded surround and sunken spandrels was seen in the hall. The beam flooring the hall was roughly squared and is probably C19 or C20. Devon SMR reports a "medieval" roof here and the former list description reports "old ceiling beams etc. within". Also the parish guide reports "a fine Elizabethan fireplace on which are carved the names of Gulbart Holcombe (born 1594) Elizabeth Holcombe (born 1590) and Josias Holcombe (married 1593)." It would seem that the interior is as well preserved as the exterior. Therefore, before a full internal survey is undertaken, great care should be taken with any modernisation work here lest C16 or C17 features be disturbed. Against the east end of the main block there is a gateway, Beerstone gateposts with ball finials. Although this has been restored the gateway is probably C17. The first documentary reference to Hole dates from 1249. It was the home of the Holcombe family during the C15, C16 and C17. It next passed to the Bartletts and then, by marriage, to the Stuckeys."
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