Colebrooke is a village and parish in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England about 8 km west of

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It stands on the A377 road, A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton, north w ...

. The main point of interest is the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

and the connection to

Henry Kingsley Henry Kingsley (2 January 1830 – 24 May 1876) was an English novelist, brother of the better-known Charles Kingsley. He was an early exponent of muscular Christianity in his 1859 novel '' The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn''. Life Kingsley ...

's novel ''The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn''. Also

Uncle Tom Cobley The phrase Uncle Tom Cobley and all is used in British English as a humorous or whimsical way of saying ''et al.'', often to express exasperation at the large number of people in a list. The phrase comes from a Devon folk song, "Widecombe Fair", c ...

, of the

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

song, signed his will at Pascoe House, but is buried 4 miles west at Spreyton. The champion Devon wrestler, Abraham Cann was born and buried here. He won the all-comers wrestling crown in London. Colebrooke gave its name to Colebrook, Connecticut,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Roman road

The remains of the agger can be seen in a field some 300m South of Rag Lane and just to the East of Five Acre Copse. This is also clearly visible from aerial views accessible online. The road follows the same line all the way from North Tawton to this point where the route becomes less obvious. A rather straight lane along the ridge of hills to the East of the railway line is suggestive of its line.

Other History

Colebrooke is also the supposed site of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

fort or marching camp just outside the village to the East. However, there is no evidence for this and it appears to refer to a square field that used to sit astride a straight run of hedgerows that was mistakenly identified as the course of the Roman road to Exeter in the 1980s (see 'Devon's Past an Aerial View' by Frances Griffith ). Two of this field's hedgerows have since been removed.

Historic estates

Coplestone

The Coplestone (or "Copplestone", "Copleston" etc.) family took its name from the manor of Copleston in the parish of Colebrooke. Pole (d.1635) states that the earliest record of this family he was able to find was in a deed dated during the reign of King

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also known as Edward of Caernarfon or Caernarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne follo ...

(1307-1327). The great antiquity of this family thus seems somewhat overstated in the traditional Devon rhyme, dismissed by Hoskins as containing "not a word of truth":
:"Crocker, Cruwys and Copplestone, :When The Conqueror came were all at home". Several junior branches of the Copleston family existed seated at Eggesford, Bowden, Instow Upton Pyne, Kingdon and Woodland. Copleston Cross, the surviving shaft of a late

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

large 10 foot high granite stone cross, named after the estate of Coplestone, is situated on the main Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction of the parishes of Colebrooke, Crediton and Down St Mary. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.276 Coplestone House was the seat of the Coplestone family from the 13th century to 1659 and the surviving Georgian house was rebuilt on a new site in 1787 by its then owner Robert Madge.

Horwell

Horwell was the residence from the 16th century of the Prye (or Pryce) family, one of the old armigerous gentry families of Devon which made a return in the 1620

Heraldic Visitations Heraldic visitations were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms (or alternatively by heralds, or junior officers of arms, acting as the kings' deputies) throughout England, Wales and Ireland. Their purpose was to register and regulate ...

of Devon. Their armorials were: ''Ermine, a chevron gules'' (or ''sable'' according to Pole) ''a chief azure fretty or''. According to Risdon (d.1640): ''"In this family one thing is remarkable that although they have continued many generations yet was it never known to have brought forth a younger brother until this our age, insomuch as the name is nowhere to be heard of but in only this place"''. The present house known as Horwell Barton has an early 19th-century facade. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.277

Church of St Andrew

In the parish church of St Andrew survive the following monuments: *Mural monument to Elizabeth Mills (d. 27 September 1667), daughter of John Mills of Colebrooke. She was buried in Colebrooke Church, where survives her mural monument with Corinthian columns and scrollwork pediment. She was the wife of

Sir John Coryton, 1st Baronet Sir John Coryton, 1st Baronet (c. 1621 – 1680) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons from 1660 to 1680. Coryton was the son of William Coryton, of West Newton Ferrers, St Mellion, Cornwall by hi ...

(c 1621 - 1680).

External links

References

{{Mid Devon Villages in Mid Devon District Roman sites in England