North Wyke

North Wyke is a large country house in South Tawton, now the Permanent Grassland Division of the Animal and Grassland Research Institute. Built in the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries for the Wyke (or Weekes) family, most of the house had reached its principal form by the early 17th century. The building underwent major renovation in the early 18th century to the main block, followed by thorough refurbishment and partial rebuilding in 1904 by architect George H Fellows Prynne for the Reverend Wykes-Finch.

The house is constructed of local Crocktree stone ashlar in different grades reflecting various building phases, with mostly granite ashlar and some Crocktree stone ashlar detail. Stone stacks with ashlar chimney shafts support slate roofs. The plan is a double courtyard arrangement facing south-east. The front gatehouse range includes a chapel to the right featuring a full-height sacrarium (or chancel) with first-floor nave and priest chamber. The right side (north-eastern) wing of the forecourt is a complete 1904 rebuild. The left side remains open, with no evidence of an earlier wing. The main block lies between the two courtyards facing the forecourt and represents the historic core of the house, based on an original 3-room-and-through-passage plan layout.

The inner room at the left end has an end stack. The hall features a rear lateral stack with the main stair rising to the rear from the back of the passage. On the service end (right of the front) was probably the buttery, with a projecting service crosswing front and back. The putative buttery has an end stack backing onto the service crosswing. The main block was much modernised in the early 18th century and the stairs were replaced in 1904, but the service wing remains largely 17th century. A room projecting forward contains the well-appointed early 17th-century "Arabesque" chamber above it. The room to the rear appears to have been a kitchen once open to the roof with an internal jetty and a massive end stack. It was floored over probably in the mid-17th century when the first-floor chamber there (the "armoury") was given a fireplace and garderobe. Stairs between the front and rear rooms were renovated in 1904. By the late 17th century the rear courtyard was enclosed apparently with stables, coach house and service accommodation. The 1904 alterations make complete interpretation of the house's historic development difficult, though it appears to have evolved from a late medieval hall house in the main block. The front gatehouse range, much rebuilt in 1904, appears to have achieved its present form when occupied by John "Warrior" Wykes (1524-1591).

The house is now two storeys throughout with attics in the main block. Most domestic rooms are heated by axial or lateral stacks. The exterior of the gatehouse range is dominated by the central gateway, a moulded 4-centred granite arch with moulded surround and carved spandrels (plainer version to the rear). The outer projecting moulding appears to have been added in the early 18th century. The gateway contains an ancient studded plank door with wicket door. Above the gateway is a heraldic plaque added in 1904. Above that, a mullioned window is set within a gable half-dormer, and another carved plaque at the apex bears the arms of Edward VI. All windows on this side and to the rear are granite mullioned containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The roof is gable-ended with shaped kneelers, coping and ball finials at the apex.

The 1904 wing connecting the gatehouse range and main block is Tudor in style with granite-mullioned windows, Tudor-style doorways and a crenellated parapet, featuring a central front bay window. The main block has a regular but not symmetrical 7-window front resulting from the early 18th-century refurbishment. The ground floor has 16th-century granite mullion-and-upper-transom windows. The first floor has 20th-century replacement timber mullion-and-upper-transom windows with early 18th-century ashlar architraves and keystones. The Tudor-style front doorway is from 1904. Coved eaves cornice and a hipped roof complete the main block. The outer walls of ranges around the rear courtyard mostly have similar windows. On the north-east side are two Norman-style doorways built in 1904. The inner walls around the rear courtyard include a couple of 17th-century oak-mullioned windows. The inner face of the former stable block has rows of pigeon holes. The open (south-west) side of the outer courtyard was closed by a low stone wall with soffit-moulded granite coping supporting ornate wrought iron railings. In the centre, the walls ramp up to large square-section gate posts with moulded caps and ball finials. They contain richly ornamented wrought iron double gates with twists, scrolls and fleur-de-lys.

The interior, like the exterior, was thoroughly refurbished in 1904, though high-quality work from all major building phases survives. The principal rooms of the main block contain much early 18th-century detail including large and small field panelling and bolection-moulded chimneypieces, architraves and plaster ceiling ribs. The contemporary roof features large M-trusses. The main stair is in the period style but was constructed in 1904. The crosswing contains much 16th and early 17th-century work including several 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screens and others in the same style built in 1904. The massive brewhouse fireplace is blocked, and the putative jetty bressumer is chamfered with scroll stops, dated to the 17th century. Stairs in this part are another 1904 replacement. At the head is a pair of late 16th-century crank-headed doors. The chamber over the brewhouse, known as the armoury, has a garderobe alcove alongside the stack, an oak crank-headed doorframe and a blocked chute.

The front chamber of this wing is perhaps the finest room in the house, a high-quality late 16th-century bedchamber. It features a granite ashlar fireplace with ovolo-moulded surround. The room is lined with small field oak panelling and includes an original pair of fitted wardrobes with panelled doors hung on cockshead hinges. Around the room runs a moulded frieze of ornamental plasterwork arabesques. The roof over this section comprises late 16th or early 17th-century trusses: A-frames morticed and tenoned onto short wall posts, with mortised and tenoned collars and threaded purlins. Little early work is visible in the former kitchen or stable blocks; the roofs there are 19th and 20th century. The gatehouse range also contains some 16th-century and early 20th-century copy oak plank-and-muntin screens and 16th and 17th-century detail, but the roof and chapel were rebuilt in 1904, the chapel with Tudor-style panelling, an oak screen with Gothic tracery and a wagon roof with carved oak bosses. The 1904 wing has Tudor-style fireplaces, panelling and an open arch-braced truss roof.

North Wyke is the largest house in the parish. The Wyke family (also known as Wyk or Weekes) were in occupation here in 1227. A chapel licence was granted to Richard Wyke in 1439. The most notable family member was John "Warrior" Weekes (1524-91), whose effigy lies in the Wyke Chapel of the Church of St Andrew, South Tawton. He was probably responsible for some of the surviving fabric of the house. The property was sold in 1713. In 1895 it was purchased by the Reverend Wykes-Finch, a descendant of the Wykes family through the distaff side.