The original name for Spreytonwood appears to have been Sprayholt or Spreyholt Wood. Sprey (as in Spreyton) is derived from an old English term for brushwood and holt is a common term for a wood, so it probably means a wood predominantly of brushwood. The earliest reference to Spreyholt Wood so far found is in a 1699 will. Because Spreyholt and Spreyton are so close in sound, it seems likely that over time people began to assume that the name was really Spreyton Wood, which then became Spreytonwood – although in the 19th century, by way perhaps of a back formation, the farm was sometimes referred to simply as “Wood”.
According to D. St Ledger Gordon’s Devonshire, the wood at Spreytonwood is the remains of a great swathe of woodland that once reached all the way to Cheriton Bishop and Crediton. It is probably one of the few untouched parts of the ancient forest that covered this part of Devon from thousands of years ago until the medieval deforestation which allowed the creation most of today’s farms.
For some reason now lost in the mists of time, the ownership of Sprayholt Wood went with the ownership of a farm variously called Bargain, Bargains, Bargaines or Burgoynes or Spreyton Town Bargains. Usually, two fields called the Brendons (unidentified) were also part of the package. Bargains had its farmhouse and farmyard in the village, next to the pub. As the 1842 tithe apportionment refers to “houses”, there was probably both a farmhouse and a cottage or two for farm labourers. The Grade II listed Bush and Bargains Cottages are probably all that remain of this establishment.
There are several references between 1772 and 1820 to first John and then Christopher Copplestone taking apprentices to work at “Bargain” (it seems to have become “Bargains” only in the 19th century). There is no reference to any apprentices for Spreyholt or Spreyton Wood, so in the 18th and early 19th century it may have been no more than a wood, possibly with a cottage, with any usable land being farmed as part of Bargains. By 1841, however, Spreyton Wood seems to have emerged as a separate entity with its own tenant – although he appears to have lived in the village rather than in what was perhaps a rather inadequate cottage where the Spreytonwood farmhouse now is.
The 19th century nomenclature of these properties is confusing in the extreme. The 1841 tithe apportionment lists two farms, both called “Spreyton Wood”. One includes the Bargains farmyard and subsequently seems more often to be called “Higher Spreyton Wood”, and is clearly the ancient Bargains.Most of what is now Spreytonwood was generally known as “Lower Spreyton Wood”.
The fields belonging to the two farms ran along the southern side of the village and then along the road to Spreyton Wood Water, as far as the ford. They both appear to have been fairly large farms. The 1842 tithe apportionment records that Bargains/Higher Spreyton Wood had 109 acres and Lower Spreyton Wood 181 acres, so together they had an acreage of over 300 (although much of the land is moor and woodland). The two farms continued to be let sometimes separately and sometimes together until the early 20th century, when they appear to have been finally amalgamated and became simply Spreytonwood.
Lower Spreyton Wood had its farm buildings where Spreytonwood farmhouse now is. There was probably a typical cob and thatch house. However, like so many thatched properties, it was burnt down in the late 19th or early 20th century and replaced by a new and not very well-built house. Lower Spreyton Wood also included a small cottage in the woods south of the farmhouse, reached by a path from the farm and known as Wood or Spreytonwood Cottage. There is no sign of this cottage on the 1842 tithe map, so it may have been built after that to house a farm labourer, when Lower Spreyton Wood was developed as a separate farm. The cottage first appears in the 1861 census and continued to be occupied into the first half of the 20th century.
Spreytonwood probably c.1920.
Bargains and Spreyton Wood were usually let together with a 23-acre smallholding called New Mill or New Mills, to the east of the Spreyton Wood Water (the “tail” running along the Troney on the right of the map above).. Until the early 19th century, villages relied on local water-mills to mill their grain for flour. The oldest mills in Spreyton were probably the ones called “Spreyton Mills” near South Beer. Somebody, however, must have decided that it would be a good idea to build a new mill on the eastern side of the parish. There may originally have been two mills, as the earlier documents (including the 1699 will) refer to “New Mills”.
The mill buildings are still clearly shown in the 1842 tithe apportionment map (which indicates that there were also a pair of cottages, no doubt to house the mill-workers), and also in the 1880s Ordnance Survey map. New Mill seems, however, to have ceased operating as a mill by the early 19th century if not before. Its steep and marshy fields went on being farmed as a smallholding at least until 1841, the tenant at that time being Christopher Copplestone, no doubt of the same family that had earlier rented Bargains. After he left, it was used to house a farm labourer, and probably the land with it became part of Lower Spreyton Wood. New Mill disappears from the census records in 1881 and it seems likely that the buildings were becoming so decayed that they were left to fall into ruin. There is no sign of them now.
17th century and earlier: Bargains, Spreyholt Wood and New Mill were part of the Manor of Spreyton that belonged to the Talbots in the Middle Ages and subsequently passed to the Kelly family of Kelly in West Devon. Ownership of the manor – and properties belonging to it – had by the 17th century been split three ways, no doubt as part of some Kelly inheritance arrangements. One quarter of the manor and of Bargains and Spreyholt Wood came into the hands of a family called Risdon, from whom it descended by inheritance to the Holes of North Tawton, The Holes were rich clerics who owned a lot of land in Devon as well as the livings of a number of parishes. They or the Risdons appear to have gradually bought up the other shares of the freehold of Bargains, Spreyton Wood and New Mill, so that they ended up owning the entire freeholds. Throughout these changes of ownership, the properties would always have been rented out for income, no doubt with a single bailiff collecting the rent on behalf of all the landlords.
1699: Will of Nathaniel Risdon of Spreyton bequeaths half of Spreyton Town Bargains; two fields called the Brandons; and Spreyholt Wood, that was purchased from Andrew Puddicombe of Hill and his mother, to his grandson Richard Risdon.
1708 and 1712: the Spreyton churchwardens’ accounts give John Tozer as the churchwarden for Spreyton Bargains, indicating that he was then the tenant. [The occupants of the various farms took it in turn to act as churchwarden.]
c.1736: Nathaniel Risdon dies childless, bequeathing his Spreyton property, including Spreytonwood, Bargains and New Mill, to his mother Mary. She in turn bequeaths it to her nephew Richard Hole.
1738: Arthur Kelly of Kelly, who owned one of the remaining quarters of the freehold of the properties, lets his quarter to the Risdons. The lease is renegotiated in 1743.
1743: Arthur Kelly of Kelly Esq leases one half of New Mills for 99 years to John Hill of Spreyton, yeoman, for £15, reserving the rights to timber on the estate.
1740-1820: parish records and land tax records indicate that the Copplestone family (Christopher and John) were the tenants of Bargains.New Mill seems to have had a succession of rapidly changing tenants, as four different people are recorded as taking apprentices to work there between 1793 and 1820.
1793: The will of Rev Richard Hole (proved 1796) bequeaths Spreyton Bargain and New Mill in Spreyton to his wife Juliana for her life and then to his fifth son Francis.
1824: George Lambert Gorwyn of Falkedon took a 14-year lease of Spreytonwood at £120 a year. He owned a number of farms in the parish, including Coffins and Rugroad which border Spreytonwood.
1842: the tithe apportionment survey provides the first full details of the properties. By then they are in the ownership of the Rev. George Hole, the Rector of Chulmleigh. There were two farms, one of 181 acres in the tenancy of Simon Martin, and one of 109 acres in the tenancy of William Newton; to which was added the 23 acres belonging to New Mill which was let to Christopher Copplestone.
1859: the Rev. George Hole died, bequeathing the properties for life to his son Richard Arum Hole, and after Richard’s death to Richard’s brother Robert Hole, the Rector of North Tawton. Richard Arum Hole was apparently simple-minded, and his father presumably left him a life interest in Spreytonwood and Bargains so that the rent from it could provide an income to pay for his care.
1885: the then tenant (whose name was Baker) seems to have died or disappeared, and the harvesting that year was done by the young farmer George Lambert of the neighbouring farm of Coffins (great-grandson of George Lambert of Falkedon who had rented it in 1824), presumably at the request of Robert Hole, who administered Spreytonwood on his brother’s behalf.
1886: Robert Hole, who was having difficulty finding a tenant, urged George Lambert to take a tenancy of the 313-acre property (it was described as two farms, of which the higher farm consisted of 129 acres of “very good land when in heart”). George was only 20 at the time and taking on Spreytonwood meant doubling the size of his land. It says a lot for George’s reputation as a farmer that Robert Hole pressed the property upon him at such a young age. George agreed to take over Spreytonwood, Bargains and New Mill, although not before driving a hard bargain over the rent on account of the bad state of the property – he ended up paying £120 rather than the £145 originally demanded. George let the house at Spreytonwood to Susan Battishill (of the Battishill family whose memorial inscriptions are in Spreyton church). For a time he farmed the whole of the two farms as well as Coffins.
1907: two separate surveys or valuations of the farm or farms were done (both are now in the Devon Record office). In a survey in February 1907, probably commissioned by George Lambert, it was valued at £2,500, a fair rental being assessed at £120 per annum, and the timber was valued at £1,010. The lands were described as being in a very fair state of cultivation, with meadows in an extremely healthy situation for sheep or cattle and the arable lands capable of bearing good average crops, although the surveyor found the then outbuildings quite insufficient for the acreage. The surveyor described the lands as ‘splendidly adapted for sporting, being intermixed with good game covers etc”. He noted that many of the fields adjoined the village or convenient roads, and could therefore always be let as smallholdings.In a second valuation in June 1907 for estate duty purposes,the property was described as freehold agricultural land of 313 acres, with a farmhouse, buildings and 2 cottages, valued at only £2,133.15s. The land was described as very poor, a large proportion being moor, furze and coarse pasture; the farmhouse was described as having been burnt down and the remains fitted up as a cottage with at least £500-600 needing to be spent on it.
1908: George Lambert M.P. sublet Lower Spreytonwood (175 acres) and New Mill (9 acres) to Ernest Sanders of Huddishill, Bow on a yearly basis for £75 a year.
1910: Death of the legal owner of Spreytonwood, the simple-minded Richard Arum Hole. By then the properties were heavily mortgaged, as Robert had borrowed on his expectations as the heir of Spreytonwood.
1911: George Lambert (by then an M.P.) purchased the freehold.
1912: George Lambert M.P. gave a 7-year lease of Spreytonwood and Croft Farms to Daniel and Charles Webber of Easthayes Farm, Ottery St Mary, at an annual rent of £150, reserving for himself as was customary the mineral, timber and game rights. Spreytonwod remained for some time with the Webber family and after that was taken on by other tenants, notably Isaac Vile and his sons.
1921: George Lambert M.P. sold a field next to Spreyton Cross to Okehampton Rural District Council for £100 to build Council houses.
A plan of the council houses c. 1921.
First half of the 20th century: George Lambert M.P. seems to have sold the decaying Bargains farmyard (the house had long disappeared) and the fields belonging to Bargains south of the village street to the occupants of Bush (the farm on the other side of the street). In the 1950s or 1960s, the farmyard and fields were sold to a smallholder and Bargains briefly regained its identity as a farm.
1972: Spreytonwood was sold by the Lamberts along with the rest of their Spreyton estate after the death in an accident of the only male heir.
Bargains or Higher Spreyton Wood is not mentioned by name, but Simon Martin, 48-year-old farmer, was living at the White Hart (now the Tom Cobley Tavern) with his wife, four children and four mainly teenage agricultural labourers. The 1842 tithe apportionment survey confirms that Martin was the tenant of a farm called “Spreyton Wood” that consisted effectively of the farm later called Higher Spreyton Wood or Bargains. The house and farmyard was next door to the White Hart. Simon Martin may have been doubling as the innkeeper.
William Newton, 50-year old farmer, was living with his wife, several children and two agricultural labourers in an unnamed dwelling in the village.Newton was the tenant of Lower Spreyton Wood at the time of the 1842 tithe apportionment survey. The fact that he was living in the village may indicate that the house at Spreyton Wood was not particularly desirable and he preferred to put a farm labourer there (see below).
Spreyton Wood: Richard Medland, agricultural labourer aged 49 was livingthere with his wife and the 70-year-old Wilmot Gidley (perhaps his mother-in-law).
New Mill: Christopher Copplestone, 42-year-old farmer, with his wife and daughter. He is noted in the 1842 tithe apportionment survey as the tenant of a 23-acre smallholding at New Mill.
Bargain: John Weeke, 41-year old farmer of 129 acres employing three labourers, living with his wife Ann and seven children. (The White Hart is not mentioned).
Spreyton Wood: Margaret Gould, widow, 56-year-old farmer of 161 acres, employing 1 labourer, living with son Richard (26) and daughtersElizabeth (18) and Harriet (15) and farm servant Thomas Arnold (16)
New Mill: Christopher Copplestone, farmer of 23 acres, 52-year-old widower, with daughter Elizabeth and grand-daughter Harriet.
Lower Spreyton Wood:John Hooper,33-year-old farmer of 136 acres employing one man and one boy, living with wife Jane (33) sons Henry and Rowland, house servant Rachel Burridge (18) and carter Benjamin Burridge (15).
Spreyton Wood (this may be the cottage): John Frost 45-year-old agricultural labourer living with his wife Martha and three children.
New Mill:Samuel Heard, 62-year-old farmer of 18 acres, with his wife Susanna (55)
Nothing listed for Bargains or Higher Spreyton Wood. Josias Middlewick, innkeeper and shoemaker, is living at the White Hart Inn.
Bargains: William Willcocks, 39-year-old farmer of 129 acres, living with his wife Susan, their four children, a 14-year old cow boy and a 13-year old general servant.
Spreyton Wood:John Hern, 38-year-old farmer of 186 acres employing two men, living with his wife Elizabeth and niece Elizabeth Isaac. There is also a lodger in a separate household, Samuel Powlesland, aged 73, farmer of 5 acres.
Wood Cottage: John Tozer, 37-year-old agricultural labourer living with his wife and daughter.
New Mill: Thomas Dart, farm labourer aged 72 living with his 42-year-old wife Jane, a charwoman, their two children and a step-daughter and step-grandson.
Wood (i.e. presumably Lower Spreyton Wood): Joseph P. Henley, 41-year-old farmer of 300 acres employing three men and two boys, living with his wife, his six children, an unmarried brother and three teenage farm servants.
Wood Cottage: William Rowe, 28-year-old farm labourer living with his wife and four children.
New Mill is not mentioned and the cottage there may by then have become uninhabitable. There is also nothing for Bargains, indicating that the house was probably occupied by farm labourers or had been Abandoned to the elements. The White Hart Inn is in the hands of William Isaac, who describes himself as “butcher, farmer and innkeeper”.
Wood: James Folley, 35-year-oldfarmer, living with his parents (his 71-year-old father is described as a farm labourer) and his sister, who is described as a general domestic servant.
Little Joy: on the census list this comes next to Wood so it may be a name for Wood Cottage. The householder is James Moore, a 47-year-old agricultural labourer, living with his wife, two adult children and his mother-in-law.
Wood Farm: Thomas Snell, age 37, horseman on farm, living with wife Jessie and daughter.
Wood Cottage:Ben Manning, 62-year-old ordinary agricultural labourer, with his wife Elizabeth and four children, the two eldest of whom are also agricultural labourers.
Spreyton Wood Farm: Joseph Ernest Sanders, age 37, with his wife and a farm labourer.
Wood Cottage:Elizabeth Manning aged 58, widow, charwoman, her youngest son Sidney and three grandchildren.
Tithe No OS No. Name Acreage Usage
Higher Spreytonwood (previously Bargains)
|501||Houses and courts||0.1.28|
|687||Broom Close||1.1.17 |
|650||North Elm Pit||13.1.29|
|655||House and Court||0.2.32|
|659||South Elm Pit||5.2.30|
|665 ||Higher Jordan||7.2.22|
|625||Houses and Courts||0.1.6|
Devon Archives ref: 76/14/2/9.
Devon Archives ref: 56/10 Box 32
Devon Archives ref: 89Z-0/T28
Devon Archives ref: 89Z/0/T32-33
Devon Archives ref: 89Z/T/34
PCC Wills, The National Archives.
There is a host of documents between 1879 and 1943 relating to the tenure of the properties by George Lambert M.P.
It also notes that Richard Arum Hole died on 12.12.1910. Attached to it is the death certificate of Karslake (described as vicar of Meshaw and Creacombe).