South Tawton

South Tawton is a village, parish and former manor on the north edge of Dartmoor, Devon, England. An electoral ward bearing the same name exists. At the 2011 census the population was 1,683.^[2]

Cross Tree, South Tawton

South Tawton
St Andrew's Church
South Tawton Location within Devon
Population	1,683 [1]
OS grid reference	SX653945
District	West Devon
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Okehampton
Postcode district	EX20
Dialling code	01837
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Central Devon (UK Parliament constituency)
List of places UK England Devon 50.73°N 3.9°W / 50.73; -3.9

In front of the church is a "Crosstree", a feature dating from the Tudor period.

Inscription: Cross Tree. a tree has stood here since the days of Queen Elizabeth I, the wall and seat were rebuilt to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953

Historic estates

Located in the parish of South Tawton are various historic estates including:

North Wyke

Arms of Wykes of North Wyke and of Cocktree, both in the parish of South Tawton:^[3] Ermine, three battle-axes sable.^[4] The similarity of these arms to those born by the prominent Wrey family later of Tawstock Court, North Devon, is suggested by Worthy (1896) to prove that they are "collateral kinsfolk of the Wykes".^[5]

North Wyke was long a possession of the Wykes family. Worthy (1896) suggested this family, Latinized to de Wigornia ("from Worcester"), was descended from a certain William de Wigornia, a younger sons of Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan (c. 1142-1204) and de jure Earl of Worcester, by his marriage with Maud FitzRoy, daughter of Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall.^[6] The manor of South Tawton was anciently a possession of the Beaumont family.^[7] The effigy of John Wykes (1520-1591) of North Wyke, known locally as "Old Warrior Wykes",^[5] survives in South Tawton Church, showing a recumbent figure dressed in full armour, under a low tester with three low Ionic columns.^[8] He married Mary Giffard, a daughter of Sir Roger Giffard (d. 1547) of Brightley, Chittlehampton, Devon.^[9]

South Zeal

The Burgoyne Monument in St Andrew's Church South Tawton. This slate and stone tablet on the wall of the South Chapel is dated 1651 and is in memory of Robert Burgoyne, his wife and their family. Those who are commemorated include a child in a cradle and an infant in a shroud. The arms of Burgoyne are: Azure, a talbot argent (as shown on the monument to Thomas Chafe (d. 1648) in the church at St Giles in the Wood, Devon, who married a Burgoyne)

The manor house of the Burgoyne family of South Zeal survives as the Oxenham Arms Public House, on the main street of the village of South Zeal, which is within the parish of South Tawton.^[10] A mural monument to Robert Burgoyne, dated 1651, survives in St Andrew's Church, South Tawton.^[11]

Climate

Since 1981, the highest recorded temperature was 33.9 °C (93.0 °F) on 3 August 1990 and the lowest was −11.0 °C (12.2 °F) on 22 December 2010.^[12]

Climate data for North Wyke 177m amsl (1991–2020) (extremes 1981–present)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	15.6 (60.1)	16.7 (62.1)	20.5 (68.9)	23.3 (73.9)	26.9 (80.4)	29.4 (84.9)	32.5 (90.5)	33.9 (93.0)	28.9 (84.0)	26.1 (79.0)	17.5 (63.5)	16.9 (62.4)	33.9 (93.0)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	7.9 (46.2)	8.2 (46.8)	10.1 (50.2)	12.6 (54.7)	15.5 (59.9)	18.3 (64.9)	19.9 (67.8)	19.8 (67.6)	17.7 (63.9)	14.1 (57.4)	10.8 (51.4)	8.5 (47.3)	13.6 (56.5)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	2.9 (37.2)	2.6 (36.7)	3.6 (38.5)	4.9 (40.8)	7.4 (45.3)	10.1 (50.2)	12.1 (53.8)	12.3 (54.1)	10.4 (50.7)	8.2 (46.8)	5.5 (41.9)	3.4 (38.1)	7.0 (44.5)
Record low °C (°F)	−10.4 (13.3)	−9.5 (14.9)	−6.3 (20.7)	−3.4 (25.9)	−0.6 (30.9)	2.8 (37.0)	5.7 (42.3)	4.4 (39.9)	1.9 (35.4)	−1.9 (28.6)	−5.9 (21.4)	−11.0 (12.2)	−11.0 (12.2)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	118.7 (4.67)	90.0 (3.54)	79.1 (3.11)	66.6 (2.62)	65.2 (2.57)	61.8 (2.43)	60.0 (2.36)	70.4 (2.77)	71.0 (2.80)	113.1 (4.45)	118.4 (4.66)	129.2 (5.09)	1,043.5 (41.07)
Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm)	15.9	13.3	12.9	11.3	10.6	9.8	10.2	11.5	10.7	15.3	16.9	16.8	155.2
Average relative humidity (%)	84.7	82.2	78.8	75.3	74.7	74.5	74.0	74.2	77.9	82.4	85.9	86.5	79.3
Mean monthly sunshine hours	54.5	75.1	111.9	163.1	193.8	191.6	184.7	160.0	142.5	102.7	64.4	51.1	1,495.4
Source 1: Met Office[13]
Source 2: Starlings Roost Weather[14]

Appearance in media

South Tawton features in Landscapes of England DVD Series 2, Ep 6. by W.G. Hoskins. He observes that while South Tawton failed as a borough it spawned the nearby settlement of South Zeal which flourished being directly on the main route from London to Lands End.^[15]

Further reading

• Roy & Ursula Radford (2000). South Tawton & South Zeal with Sticklepath. Halsgrove. ISBN 1-55212-606-4.
• Patrick Shaw (1995). South Tawton Parish Council, The First Fifty Years. South Tawton & Dist. Hist. Group.
• Tony Clark (2002). South Tawton Church House - Options to Secure its Future.
• Wykes-Finch, Rev. W., "The Ancient Family of Wyke of North Wyke, Co. Devon", published in Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, 1903, Vol. 35, pp. 360–425 SEE HERE