Situated topographically on the plateau between the Torridge and Taw Rivers, the parish covers 1,258 ha (3,110 acres) and contains a population of some 258 parishioners.

[3] The family became extinct in the male line on the death of Roger Wollocombe (1632-1704), buried at Roborough, who left two or three surviving daughters as his co-heiresses.

He died without surviving male progeny, when his heir became his younger brother Thomas Stafford (1697-1756), who likewise assumed the surname Wollocombe and was buried at Roborough.

[7] Risdon (d.1640) however stated Over Wollocombe to have been in the parish of Mortehoe,[8] about 18 miles north-west of Roborough, the modern beach-resort of Woolacombe.

According to Risdon this estate in the parish of Mortehoe was the original home of the Wollocombe family, which later moved to "Combe"[9] in the parish of Roborough, which it inherited following the marriage of Thomas Wollocombe to Elizabeth Barry, daughter and heiress of Henry At-Combe (alias Barry, a younger son of the Barry family, lords of the manor of Roborough, who "was called after the name of this house"[10])[11] Risdon calls the Wollocombe seat in the parish of Roborough simply "Combe".

Henry Hole was a builder and wood-engraver from Liverpool[19] who in about 1816 rebuilt the mansion house, possibly incorporating some elements of the former building; the architect may have been Thomas Lee.