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

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Mid Devon Mid Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Tiverton. The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Tiverton and Crediton urban distri ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. It is not an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

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 parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorwa ...

and Down St Mary. The small parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Sandford, Crediton Hamlets, Colebrooke,

Clannaborough Clannaborough is a parish in the county of Devon, England, situated about miles north-west of the town of Crediton and 11 miles north-east of Okehampton. No village exists, only scattered farmhouses, including Clannaborough Barton and the barto ...

, 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 in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...

and

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, but ...

on the A377, nestled in a valley. ''Copplestone'' is a major part of the Yeo electoral ward 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, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

, 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 Simonsbat ...

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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

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 ( phaneritic) 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 cools and solidifies und ...

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 ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

. 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. 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. Des ...

, on the

River Taw The River Taw () 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 Bideford Bay in the Bristol Channel, having formed a large e ...

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.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Devon Former manors in Devon