Copplestone (anciently Copelaston, Coplestone etc.[1]) is a village, former manor and civil parishinMid Devon in the English county of Devon. It is not an ecclesiastical parish 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 and Down St Mary.[2]
The small parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Sandford, Crediton Hamlets, Colebrooke, Clannaborough, and Down St Mary.[3]
According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 894,[4] increasing to 1,253 in 2011.[5] It is situated right in the middle of Devon halfway between Exeter and Barnstaple 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.[6]
The Tarka Line 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, visible to the east and Exmoor to the north, a little farther away. The surrounding countryside has been used for agriculture from before Roman occupation of the area.
In the centre of the village, standing at the junction of the three parishes of Colebrooke, Crediton and Down St Mary,[2] is the Copplestone Cross, a granite pillar, said to be either a boundary stone[7] or the surviving shaft of a decorated late Saxoncross.[2] 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.[8] The granite for the cross must have been brought some 9 miles from Dartmoor, which suggests it had some deep cultural significance. It was mentioned as Copelan Stan[7] in a charter dated 974.[9] Putta, the second and last Bishop of Tawton (reigned 906-910), was murdered in 910 whilst travelling from his see at Bishops Tawton, on the River Taw 2 miles south of Barnstaple in North Devon, to visit the Saxon viceroy Uffa, whose residence was at Crediton.[10][11] 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.[12]
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.[13][14]
The Copplestone family married into both the french landowning Umfraville family and the noble Ferrers family, both noble aristocratic english families.
^Baring-Gould, Sabine (1834-1924), A Book of the West, Being an Introduction to Devon & Cornwall, Vol. I, Devon, London, 1900, p.98 [1]
^Chattaway, Joseph, An Historical Sketch of the Danmonii: Or Ancient Inhabitants of Devonshire, 1830, p.79 [2]
^Pole: "Putta was next Bishop of Tawton & was slayne in his journey towards Crediton to visitt the Kinge", as recorded by John Hooker (d.1601) (Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.27)
Media related to Copplestone at Wikimedia Commons
