South Tawton
Historic estates
Located in the parish of South Tawton are various historic estates including:
North Wyke
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. The manor of South Tawton was anciently a possession of the Beaumont family. The effigy of John Wykes (1520-1591) of North Wyke, known locally as "Old Warrior Wykes", survives in South Tawton Church, showing a recumbent figure dressed in full armour, under a low tester with three low Ionic columns. He married Mary Giffard, a daughter of Sir Roger Giffard (d. 1547) of Brightley, Chittlehampton, Devon.
South Zeal
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. A mural monument to Robert Burgoyne, dated 1651, survives in St Andrew's Church, South Tawton.
Climate
Since 1990, the highest recorded temperature was 27 °C (81 °F) in June 2017 and the lowest was -6 °C (21 °F) in March 2018.
| Climate data for North Wyke 177m amsl (1981–2010) (extremes 1990–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12 (54) |
12 (54) |
14 (57) |
20 (68) |
23 (73) |
27 (81) |
26 (79) |
24 (75) |
21 (70) |
19 (66) |
15 (59) |
13 (55) |
27 (81) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.7 (45.9) |
7.7 (45.9) |
9.8 (49.6) |
12.1 (53.8) |
15.2 (59.4) |
18.0 (64.4) |
19.9 (67.8) |
19.8 (67.6) |
17.5 (63.5) |
13.9 (57.0) |
10.5 (50.9) |
8.1 (46.6) |
13.4 (56.0) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.5 (36.5) |
2.1 (35.8) |
3.6 (38.5) |
4.4 (39.9) |
7.2 (45.0) |
9.8 (49.6) |
12.0 (53.6) |
12.1 (53.8) |
10.2 (50.4) |
7.9 (46.2) |
5.1 (41.2) |
3.0 (37.4) |
6.7 (44.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −4 (25) |
−5 (23) |
−6 (21) |
−2 (28) |
2 (36) |
6 (43) |
8 (46) |
7 (45) |
3 (37) |
3 (37) |
0 (32) |
0 (32) |
−6 (21) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 121.0 (4.76) |
89.3 (3.52) |
85.6 (3.37) |
66.7 (2.63) |
70.0 (2.76) |
55.9 (2.20) |
58.8 (2.31) |
64.4 (2.54) |
74.2 (2.92) |
118.8 (4.68) |
118.6 (4.67) |
130.0 (5.12) |
1,053.3 (41.48) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 15.9 | 12.5 | 13.7 | 11.3 | 10.7 | 9.0 | 10.2 | 10.3 | 10.7 | 15.7 | 16.3 | 15.5 | 151.8 |
| 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 | 53.3 | 71.5 | 102.6 | 161.6 | 185.8 | 189.7 | 185.8 | 165.7 | 140.1 | 97.7 | 66.2 | 51.0 | 1,471 |
| Source 1: Met Office | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: MSN | |||||||||||||
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.
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