Copplestone (anciently Copelaston, Coplestone etc.) is a village, former manor and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Mid Devon Mid Devon is a local government district 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, t ...

in the English county of

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 ...

. It is not an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

as it has no church of its own, which reflects its status as a relatively recent settlement which grew up around the ancient "Copleston Cross" (see below) that stands at the junction of the three ancient ecclesiastical parishes of Colebrooke,

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 ...

and Down St Mary. The small parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Sandford, Crediton Hamlets, Colebrooke, Clannaborough, and Down St Mary. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 894, increasing to 1,253 in 2011. It is situated right in the middle of Devon halfway between

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

and

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

on the A377, nestled in a valley. ''Copplestone'' is a major part of the Yeo

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

whose total ward population was 3,488 at the above census. The

Tarka Line The Tarka Line, also known as the North Devon Line, is a local railway line in Devon, England, linking the city of Exeter with the town of Barnstaple via a number of local villages, operated by Great Western Railway (GWR). The line opened in 18 ...

railway goes through the middle of the village and calls at Copplestone railway station. Copplestone is surrounded by hills and is not far from

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

, visible to the east and

Exmoor Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

to the north, a little farther away. The surrounding countryside has been used for agriculture from before

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 ...

occupation of the area.

Copplestone Cross

In the centre of the village, standing at the junction of the three parishes of Colebrooke,

and Down St Mary, is the Copplestone Cross, a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

pillar, said to be either a boundary stone Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.372 or the surviving shaft of a decorated 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 ...

cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...

. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.276 It stands 3.2 metres high, and is 0.6 metres square, covered with intricate relief sculpted decoration. Parallels of the intricate interlacing design have been drawn with those designs of crosses found in the Isle of Man. The granite for the cross must have been brought some 9 miles from

, which suggests it had some deep cultural significance. It was mentioned as ''Copelan Stan'' in a charter dated 974. Putta, the second and last Bishop of Tawton (reigned 906–910), was murdered in 910 whilst travelling from his see at

Bishops Tawton Bishop's Tawton is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. It is in the valley of the River Taw, about three miles south of Barnstaple. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,176. Desc ...

, on the

River Taw The River Taw () in England rises at Taw Head, a spring on the central northern flanks of Dartmoor, crosses North Devon and at the town of Barnstaple, formerly a significant port, empties into Barnstaple Bay in the Bristol Channel, having form ...

2 miles south of

in North Devon, to visit the Saxon viceroy Uffa, whose residence was at Crediton. It is believed that Copplestone Cross, situated 6 miles north-west of Crediton and 22 miles south-east of Bishops Tawton, was erected in commemoration of his murder at this spot.

Manor of Coplestone

CoplestoneHouse Colebrooke Devon Panorama

The Copleston Cross or Stone gave its name to the estate or manor of Copleston (modern: Coplestone) which was the earliest known home of the Copleston family.

Copplestone family

The Copplestone family married into both the French landowning

Umfraville The Umfraville family were Anglo-Norman landowners, administrators and soldiers who were prominent from about 1120 to 1437 on the northern border of England, where they held the strategic lordships of Prudhoe and Redesdale in Northumberland. T ...

family and the noble

Ferrers family The Ferrers family were a noble Anglo-Norman family that crossed to England with the Norman Conquest of England, Norman Conquest and gave rise to a line that would hold the Earldom of Derby for six generations before losing it in rebellion. They ...

, both noble aristocratic English families. Notable members of the Copplestone Family include Thomas Coplestone,

Edward Copleston Edward Copleston (2 February 177614 October 1849) was an English churchman and academic, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1814 till 1828 and Bishop of Llandaff from 1827. Life Born into an ancient West Country family, Copleston was born ...

Frederick Copleston Frederick Charles Copleston (10 April 1907 – 3 February 1994) was a British Catholic priest, philosopher, and historian of philosophy, best known for his influential multi-volume '' A History of Philosophy'' (1946–75). Copleston achieved ...

and more recently Michael Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow. More recently,the concentration of Copplestone family members has gradually moved from

into

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

and

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Devon Former manors in Devon