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Summary

Three buildings depicted on the circa 1840s tithe map. The tithe apportionment names the estate Tiverton Priors and the plots are named House, Homestead, Yard and Garden.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMSTEAD (XVIII - 1701 AD? to 1800 AD? (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

Three buildings depicted in close proximity to eachother. The tithe apportionment names the estate Tiverton Priors and the plots are named House, Homestead, Yard and Garden.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Three buildings depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1880s-90s map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Three buildings depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1904-06 map.

Ordnance Survey, 1930 - 1939, Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV336668.

Two buildings depicted, the building to the south is no longer present.

Morris, B., 2019, Copplestone Farm, West Manley, Tiverton: Evaluation and Heritage Impact Assessment (Report - Excavation). SDV363519.

South West Archaeology Ltd. was commissioned by the landowner to undertake a programme of analysis and investigation at Copplestone Farm, West Manley, Tiverton, Devon, in advance of a planning application. The site formed part of the Manor of Tiverton, granted in the 13th century to the alien Priory of St James in Exeter. The lands of that priory were seized by Henry VI and granted to King’s College Cambridge, who held them until 1926.

The site is located within the hamlet of West Manley and was divided between Clare, Priors, and Tidcombe, but was in origin the Domesday Manor of Manelie, a 1 virgate estate (land for two ploughs) held TRE by Alstan, and by Gerard from the king in 1086. The eastern half of the site was in Priors (held by St James in Exeter and granted in the 15th century to King’s College Cambridge) and the western half was in Clare.

A walkover surveys undertaken assessed the archaeological potential of the site as high, with excellent preservation of earthworks and the recovery of building material and finds from the location of the lost farmhouse. The site gives the appearance of being artificially elevated: West Manley Lane to the north is deeply incised (c.2m), as is the former lane that passes along and through the eastern part of the site, and the ground abruptly falls away to the west and south.

There are two standing buildings on the site. The surviving barn (B1) is a large rectangular cob-built structure on a stone plinth with a modern hipped roof. The south-west side was modified in the 19th century to form two large two-storey openings (i.e. a linhay) with brick quoins, and the end elevation has been rebuilt in stone. The interior forms a single space with an earth floor open to the roof, although there are sockets for joists indicating there was once a first floor.

A ruined rectangular building (B2) stands to the west, similarly of cob on a stone plinth, but much repaired in stone and brick. The stone plinth is built of small rectangular (quarried) siltstone similar to the barn, but above this the rebuilt rear (west) wall is of a coarse purplish breccia which might have been reclaimed from one of the lost buildings on the site. The test pit excavated inside the building would suggest it had an earth floor.

Nine short evaluation trenches or test pits were opened across the site (see Figure 15). They were located within and around the proposed footprint of the development in order to determine the presence and character of archaeological remains on the site, and to draw up a deposit model to ascertain the presence, depth and character of any made ground. For the most part the trenching determined that the natural substrate (the weathered upper part of the Tidcombe Sand Member) lay relatively close to the surface (within the ‘normal’ range, i.e. 0.4-0.5m); this indicates levels across the site have not been artificially raised. The exception to this was in TP#7 and TP#8 on the southern edge of the site, where the farmhouse (F1) had been located. Here a greater thickness of made ground was encountered, but perversely, no clear evidence (i.e. walls, floors) for the farmhouse was uncovered. This dumped material was all 19th century or later in date.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

The only surviving building is the one to the northeast.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8682 - Evaluation and Heritage Impact Assessment: Copplestone Farm, West Manley, Tiverton (Ref: 190813)

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