Newton St Cyres is a village,
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
former
manor and former ecclesiastical parish in
Mid Devon, 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 ide ...
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. Devo ...
, located between
Crediton and
Exeter. It had a population of 562 at the
2011 Census. The village is part of the Newbrooke
electoral ward. The ward population at the above census was 1,520. Almost destroyed by fire in the early 1960s, its main point of interest is the
Parish Church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
, built in the 15th century and dedicated to the
martyrs
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...
St. Cyriac and his mother St. Julitta. Most of the church is in early Perpendicular style, built of local reddish 'trap', a volcanic stone from quarries at Posbury, with the exception of the nave pillars, which are of Beer stone. It contains the monument with standing effigy of
John Northcote (1570-1632) of Hayne,
lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of Newton St Cyres.
Newton St Cyres railway station is on 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 ...
from
Exeter to
Barnstaple and the
Dartmoor Line
The Dartmoor line is a railway line in Devon, England. From , the line runs alongside the Tarka Line to the site of the former Coleford Junction where it diverges west to . Previously a heritage line, it is owned by Network Rail.
The route ...
from Exeter to
Okehampton
Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based in the town (east and west) ...
, but is located approximately 0.5 miles outside the village centre, and receives an infrequent service.
Newton St Cyres is home to a public house, the ''Beer Engine'', which is situated next to the railway station, and an Italian restaurant, ''Belluno'', which was formerly the ''Crown and Sceptre'' public house. Traditional cheeses can be bought from the ''Quickes Farm'' shop. The village has a recreation ground with two football pitches, a cricket pitch and two tennis courts.
Historic estates
The parish of Newton St Cyres contains various historic estates including:
*Newton House, built ''circa'' 1770 by
John VI Quicke (1724-1776), (i.e. "the 6th"),
Sheriff of Devon
The High Sheriff of Devon is the Queen's representative for the County of Devon, a territory known as his/her bailiwick. Selected from three nominated people, they hold the office for one year. They have judicial, ceremonial and administrative f ...
in 1757, whose monument survives in the parish church of St Cyr and St Julitta, Newton St Cyres. In 1810, his son John Quicke VII (1759-1830) of Newton House, was
lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of Newton St Cyres. The location of the house was marred by the presence of the busy main-road between Crediton and Exeter, which passed almost next to the house and separated it from the parish church. To ameliorate the situation, at some time before 1797, John VII Quicke employed soldiers returning from the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
to lower the road by digging out a 50-foot deep cutting, over which he built a private footbridge linking his house with the church yard. Thus the house now appears sited at the edge of a cliff,
[Swete, Vol.3, p. 126] as is illustrated in a 1797 watercolour by Rev.
John Swete
Rev. John Swete (born John Tripe) (baptised 13 August 1752 – 25 October 1821) of Oxton House, Kenton in Devon, was a clergyman, landowner, artist, antiquary, historian and topographer and author of the ''Picturesque Sketches of Devon'' consi ...
. The house burned down in 1906, but was rebuilt in 1909. It was converted into flats and sold by the Quicke family, which in 1967 had abandoned it in favour of nearby Sherwood within the same parish.
[Lauder, p. 129]
*Sherwood House, built in 1918 by Adrian Cave, to the design of his cousin the architect
Walter Cave
Walter Frederick Cave (17 September 1863 – 7 January 1939) was an English architect, active in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who worked firstly in the Arts and Crafts style, and latterly in the Classical Revival. In a ...
of Sidbury, in the
Arts and Crafts style.
It was occupied by the Quicke family, which had abandoned nearby Newton House, from 1967 until its sale in February 2017. The business known as ''Quicke's Cheeses'' was established by John X Quicke (i.e.the 10th), using milk from the 2,400 acre estate in the parish still owned by his family. He served as chairman of the Ministry of Agriculture's Regional Board 1972–5.
*Hayne, ancient seat of the
Northcote family, in 1885 elevated to the
peerage as
Viscount St Cyres ''of Newton St Cyres'' and
Earl of Iddesleigh
Earl of Iddesleigh ( ), in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the Conservative politician Sir Stafford Northcote, 8th Baronet, of Pynes in the parish of Upton Pyne near Exeter i ...
. The house had been demolished by 1797,
to be replaced by a farmhouse, Hayne Barton, and the Northcotes moved to
Pynes House
Pynes House is a Grade II* listed Queen Anne style country house built by Hugh Stafford between around 1700 and 1725, situated in the parish of Upton Pyne, Devon, 3 miles northwest of Exeter. It was the manor house for the Manor of Upton Pyne, ...
in the parish of
Upton Pyne
Upton Pyne is a parish and village in Devon, England. The parish lies just north west of Exeter, mainly between the River Exe and River Creedy. The village is located north of Cowley and west of Brampford Speke and Stoke Canon. It has a populat ...
, Devon, but that was sold in 1998, and by 2003 the present head of the family,
John Stafford Northcote, 5th Earl of Iddesleigh, had returned to live at Hayne Barton.
['']Burke's Peerage
Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...
'', vol. 2 (2003), p. 2021
References
External links
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{{authority control
Villages in Devon