Tawstock
Tawstock is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Fremington Hundred. It falls within Barnstaple Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 1131 in 1801 1241 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 331 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in Barnstaple Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image here is of the Tawstock area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 13/14,15 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 13SW,SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS556299. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS52NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 139, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 293 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Tawstock as included in the Library's illustrations collection. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
TAWSTOCK a large parish in singularly beautiful country W. of the lower Taw valley, was the seat of the Bourchiers, Lords Fitzwarren and Earls of Bath, from the 15th century to the 17th, when their heiress carried it to the Wreys. The Bourchiers were created earls of Bath in 1536 and were one of the most powerful families in Devon in their time. Their great mansion was burnt down in 1787. Only the splendid gatehouse survives, dated 1574. The house was rebuilt by Sir Bourchier Wrey in 1787, to his own "Gothick" design, and is remarkably ugly. It is now a school.
Below it lies the church (St. Peter) which contains the finest collection of monuments in Devon, and one of the most notable in England. It is beautifully situated in the timbered park, on a hillside falling gently to the Taw, and is externally one of the most attractive churches in the county (plate 30). Cruciform in plan, with a central tower, it is almost purely early 14th century in date, itself an unusual feature in Devon churches. The fittings and monuments in the church are of the highest interest: an entire half-day should be allowed for their inspection.
The N. transept has a ceiling of Italian plaster-work, and medieval glass in the window. A beautiful late 16th century gallery leads to the belfry. This may possibly have been the minstrels' gallery, rescued from the old house in 1787. The Wrey manorial pew is French Renaissance work, perhaps the finest example of its kind in Devon, and has some excellent carved bench-ends near it, temp. Henry VllI. The transept contains a considerable number of monuments, including a beautiful one to Mrs. Ann Chilcot (1758).
In the chancel is a beautiful little mural monument, with a kneeling figure, to Mary St. John (1631), and beyond that the oldest of the Tawstock monuments, a 14th century effigy in oak of an unknown lady. Inside the altar rails is the magnificent tomb, with recumbent life-size effigies, of William Bourchier, 5th Baron Fitzwarren and 3rd Earl of Bath (d. 1623) and Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford. Both are portrayed in their full robes of the peerage, and the earl is coroneted. At either end of the tomb are ranged the kneeling sons and daughters of this noble pair. The whole tomb is sumptuously coloured.
In the S. chancel aisle, which was added about 1540, and has a fine open cradle-roof of that date, the monuments are overwhelming. The sculptured standing figure of Rachel, Countess of Bath (d. 1680), is by Bal- thasar Burman, and is a replica of the statue of the Countess of Shrewsbury at St. John's College, Cambridge, done by his father in 1672.
Near her is the massive and ugly table-tomb of her husband, Henry, the 5th and last Earl of Bath. Against the S. wall is the tomb of Frances, Lady Fitzwarren (d. 1586), erected in 1589, every detail of which is worthy of study. Her effigy is most beautifully and delicately sculptured. Finally, in this aisle, are two mural monuments to officers of the Earl of Bath's household-Thomas Hinson and William Skippon.
In the S. transept, which has a plaster ceiling similar to that in the N. transept, are numerous Wrey monuments and memorials of 18th and 20th century date, and many hatchments.
Leaving this remarkable church, we return through the park to the village, which has a good deal of attractive building and, some little way beyond, a handsome late Georgian rectory as befitted a rich family living. There are a number of interesting farmhouses scattered about the parish, which the visitor to Tawstock, exhausted by this prolonged contact with nobility, will find for himself in the lanes and byways.
