Upton Pyne

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Upton Pyne is a a village in Devon, England, located north of Cowley and west of Stoke Canon.

[edit] History

The manor came into the possession of the Pyne family during the reign of Henry I (1100-1135) when Herbert de Pine took over the land. The Pyne family held it for ten successive generations, until Constance Pyne married William Larder about the end of the 15th century. The Larders held the manor for five generations. In the early 18th century the heiress of Stafford of Pynes married her neighbour Sir Henry Northcote, 5th baronet, and took the manor to him. Sir Henry probably built the present Pynes House, a typical Queen Anne house, enlarged in 1851.

The Pyne family also gave their name to the villages of Culm Pyne and Washford Pyne.

[edit] The church

St Mary's church is built of the local volcanic stone, and has a particularly beautiful tower, with figures of the four evangelists at its corners and that of Christ in Benediction on its West face.

The chancel has some early 14th century work; the West tower and South aisle were probably added about 1400, the North aisle in 1833.

The altar-piece is a painting of the Last Supper by an unknown hand, brought from Italy by one of the Northcotes about 1710. There is an altar-tomb to Humphrey Larder (d. 1588), another with a recumbent effigy of Edmund Larder (d. 1521), and several monuments to the Northcotes of Pynes, later Earls of Iddesleigh.

Dr. John Walker, author of The Sufferings of the Clergy, was rector here 1720-47, and is buried on the N. side of the churchyard.