Tawstock

Tawstock
St Peter's Church, Tawstock
Tawstock  Tawstock shown within Devon
Population	2,093 (2001)
OS grid reference	SS5529
Civil parish	Tawstock
District	North Devon
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BARNSTAPLE
Postcode district	EX31
Dialling code	01271
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	North Devon
List of places UK England Devon

Coordinates: 51°03′N 4°03′W / 51.05°N 4.05°W

Tawstock is a village, civil parish and former manor in North Devon in the English county of Devon. It has a population of 2,093.^[1]

Parish Church

St Peter's church is, unusually for Devon, a church largely of the 14th century. The plan is cruciform and the site is in the former park of the Earls of Bath. The collection of church monuments is particularly fine: most of the persons commemorated are members of the family of the Earls, connections of theirs, or household officers. Features of interest include the 16th century gallery, the manorial pew of the Earls of Bath (Renaissance in style) and two ceilings of Italian plasterwork. The tomb of Lady Fitzwarren and the monument of Rachel, Countess of Bath (with figure by Burman) are in the south chancel aisle.^[2] The tomb of Sir John Wray (died 1597) is a large slate-covered tomb-chest with decorated slate back-plate. The tomb was originally at St Ive in Cornwall because a Wray had married a Bourchier in 1652 and it was brought here in 1924.^[3]

Manor of Tawstock

The manor of Tawstock was an important one in North Devon, being at times a residence of the feudal barons of Barnstaple. It was held successively by the families of de Totnes, de Braose, de Tracy, FitzMartin, Audley, FitzWarin, Hankford, Bourchier and Wrey. The present Wrey baronet still resides within the former manor^[4] and retains ownership of much of the land within the parish, but no longer owns Tawstock Court, the manor house.

Tawstock Court

Tawstock Court east front and St Peter's Church, Tawstock, viewed from Codden Hill looking westwards

View of Tawstock Court looking eastwards from across the River Taw in Bishops Tawton, painted by Rev. John Swete (1752–1821) in 1797, copied from a sketch by "Mr Payne", as Swete was prevented by rain from painting the scene himself. Devon Record Office, 564M/F11/2

Tawstock Court, view from south-east. Parts of the Elizabethan building, including large mullioned windows, survive in the south wing (left), which faces the surviving Elizabethan gate-house

Elizabethan gatehouse built in 1574 of Tawstock Court, viewed from south-east

Renaissance aedicule (with (restored) date-stone "Anno 1574" above) over gateway on south facade of Elizabethan gatehouse, Tawstock Court. Contains the heraldic achievement of William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath (d.1623). The ten quarterings shown on the escutcheon are as follows (with tinctures added):^[5] *1)Argent a cross engrailed gules between four water bougets sable (Bourchier) *2) Gules, a fess argent between 15 billets or 5,4,3,2,1 (Louvaine) (across the first two quarters is a label of three points for difference) *3)Quarterly per fess indented argent and gules (FitzWarin) *4)Gules, a fret or (Audley) *5)Argent, three aspen leaves erect gules (Cogan) *6)Sable, a chevron barry nebuly argent and gules (Hankford) *7)Argent, two bars wavy sable (Stapledon) *8)Argent, two bars gules each charged with three bezants (Martin) *9)Gules, four fusils in fess ermine (Dinham) *10)Gules, three pairs of arches argent (Arches). The dexter supporter of a horse or possibly heraldic antelope, stands on a pedestal showing a peacock in its pride, the crest of George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros (c.1470-1513),^[6] whose daughter Eleanor Manners married, after 1524, as his 2nd wife, John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath (1499-1560/61). The sinister supporter of a dove or falcon stands on a pedestal showing the Bourchier knot.^[7] Above the shield is the Bourchier crest: A man's head in profile proper ducally crowned or with a pointed cap gules^[8]

The Elizabethan mansion re-built by William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath (d.1623), whose magnificent monument with effigies exists in St Peter's Church, no longer exists apart from the gatehouse, with date-stone 1574. The Wrey family of Trebeigh Manor, St Ive near Liskeard, Cornwall, were heirs of the Bourchiers on the death of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath in 1654 without progeny.^[9][10] Anne Bourchier, one of the three daughters of his first cousin once removed Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (d.1636), had married Sir Chichester Wrey, 3rd Baronet (1628-1668), and thus as one of the three Bourchier co-heiresses she brought the Tawstock estate to the Wrey family.^[11] Four years after Sir Bourchier Wrey, 7th Baronet (1757-1826) had inherited the estate from his father the house burned down in 1787 and was rebuilt by him in the Neo-Gothic style by about 1800, when Rev. John Swete described visiting it in his travel journal: "Entering through a gateway of antient date by the stables I arrived in front of Tawstock House the seat of Sir Bourchier Wrey which when completed (for it is now but a shell) will be one of the finest houses in the county"^[12] He considered however that the church intercepted the view but excused its presence on account of its architectural merits and "highly-wrought" monumental contents. Part of the Elizabethan house survives today on the south front. The north front was re-modelled in 1885.^[13] The principal east front, with crenallated parapet and two end turrets, faces towards St Peter's Parish Church and has a magnificent view across the River Taw to Bishops Tawton village and Codden Hill. It forms a highly picturesque sight when viewed from Bishops Tawton, through which passes a main road to Barnstaple. Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet (1855-1917) was the last to live at Tawstock Court and "to keep house in the old manner" and moved to Corffe, a house on the estate about 1/2 mile SW of Tawstock Court, having let the Court.^[14] On his own death in 1917 the title passed to his younger brother, Sir Philip Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 12th Baronet (1858-1936),^[15] who in 1919 sold 2,500 acres of the estate for £67,000, leaving some 7,000 acres remaining.^[16] In about 1940 Sir Philip's younger brother and heir, Rev. Sir Albany Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 13th Baronet (1861-1948), let Tawstock Court to St Michael's Preparatory School. His nephew and heir Sir (Castel Richard) Bourchier Wrey, 14th Baronet (1903-1991) lived at Webbery,^[17] near Bideford, about 4 1/4 miles SW of Tawstock Court, and in the 1970s sold Tawstock Court to its tenant St Michael's School and sold most of the remaining land. Sir George Richard Bourchier Wrey, 15th Baronet (born 1948) inherited only a farmhouse with a few hundred acres, and in 2002 was running a family property business, entirely unconnected with the former Wray estates.^[18] St Michael's School continued to occupy Tawstock Court until 2012 when it became insolvent and went into administration, upon which the preparatory school closed. On 17 July 2012 the property with 32 acres was purchased for an undisclosed sum from the administrator Grant Thornton UK LLP, joint administrators of St Michael's School Tawstock Ltd., by Mr Rik Peryer, a property investor and developer, as a private residence.^[19] As part of the sale the nursery school division of St Michael's School continues to operate (in 2013) in the stable blocks to the immediate west of the house.

Historic estates

Tawstock House and St. Peter's church, from Codden Hill, by Thomas Bonner for Rev. Richard Polwhele, circa 1797.

Corffe

Corffe, Tawstock, as rebuilt sometime between 1790 to 1822^[20]

The estate of Corffe belonged formerly to the Hearle family, and came to the Lovett family by the marriage of Edward Lovett (1627-1702),^[21][22] whose mural monument survives in Tawstock Church (a son of Sir Robert Lovett (1577-1643) of Liscombe House, Soulbury, Buckinghamshire, Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1610) with Joan Hearle (1642-1709), the heiress of Corffe. The Lovett family is very ancient and William Lovett is said to have been "Wolf Hunter" (Louvetier) to William the Conqueror, hence the family's arms of Argent, three wolves passant in pale sable,^[23] which can be seen on various mural monuments in Tawstock Church. The family retained its ancient seat of Liscombe until 1907.^[24] Edward Lovett's sister Anne Lovett (born 1615/19) became the second wife of Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (1590-1636), of Tawstock Court, but the marriage was without progeny. She married secondly (as his second wife) to Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden (1611–1682). Sir Henry Northcote, 4th Baronet (1655-1730), a physician, married Penelope Lovett, daughter and heiress of Edward Lovett. He resided at Corffe, and died there in 1730.^[25] His mural monument is situated in Tawstock Church. Sir Henry Northcote's elder brother was Sir Francis Northcote, 3rd Baronet (d.1709), of Hayne in the parish of Newton St Cyres, Devon, who was the husband of Anne Wrey, a daughter of Sir Chichester Wrey, 3rd Baronet (1628-1668), who had married Lady Anne Bourchier, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath (1590-1636), and heiress of Tawstock.^[26] In 1790 Corffe was exchanged with the Rector of Tawstock for glebe land, and the parsonage-house (standing in 1822) was built on the premises by the Rev. Bourchier William Wrey, rector in 1822.^[27] The advowson of Tawstock, thus control of the Rectory, was held by the Wrey family. Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet (1855-1917) made Corffe his residence, having let Tawstock Court.^[28]

See also

• Manor of Tawstock

References

1. Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : North Devon Retrieved 28 January 2010
2. Betjeman, John, ed. (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches; the South. London: Collins; p. 166
3. Pevsner, N. (1952) North Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin; p. 153
4. "Hollamoor Farm, Tawstock" was the residence of the 15th Baronet in 2015, per Kidd, Charles, Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage 2015 Edition, London, 2015, p.B880
5. The same quarterings are shown on the monument of Lady Frances Bourchier (d.1612) in the Bedford Chapel, Chenies, Buckinghamshire, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bath http://www.middlesex-heraldry.org.uk/publications/monographs/chenies/cheniesBKM-monuments.htm
6. Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.968
7. The Manners peacock and Bourchier knot are also shown sculpted with the arms of Bourchier impaling Manners above the south-east door to Tawstock Church
8. Visitation of Devon, 1895, p.106
9. The 5th Earl's Irish estates passed to his widow and thence to the son of her youngest brother (Colonel the honourable George Fane), Sir Henry Fane, KB, of Basildon, in Berkshire.
10. Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.107
11. Vivian
12. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of the Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, vol.1, Tiverton, 1999, p.33
13. Pevsner, N. (1952) North Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin; p. 154
14. Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156
15. Obituary: p. 156, The Annual Register: a review of public events at home and abroad, for the year 1917. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1918
16. Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156
17. Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.877
18. Lauder, p.156
19. Independent property adviser GVA has completed the sale of the Tawstock Court estate near Barnstaple, Devon, on behalf of Nigel Morrison and Trevor O'Sullivan of Grant Thornton UK LLP, joint administrators of St Michael's School Tawstock Ltd.
20. Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822
21. Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822
22. mural monument in Tawstock Church
23. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1413-15, pedigree of Lovett of Liscombe
24. Burke, 1937, p.1415
25. Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822
26. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.582, pedigree of Northcote
27. Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822
28. Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156

Further reading

• Pevsner, N. (1952) North Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin; pp. 151–53 [Church of] St Peter

External links

Media related to Tawstock at Wikimedia Commons