North Wyke

The surviving grade I listed[1] manor house, the original Devonshire seat of the Wyke (alias de Wray) family from the early 13th century to 1714,[2] retains its basic mediaeval form, but was "improved and reconstructed"[3] by Rev.

William Wykes-Finch (d.1920) in 1904, historian and descendant (via a female line) of the Wyke family, to the design of G.H.

), which during the reign of King Richard II (1377-1399) changed its surname from "de Wray" to the name of its seat, "Wyke".

[13] The Westcountry author and historian Sabine Baring-Gould (d.1924) in his "Book of Dartmoor" (1907), relates the tale of "Wicked Richard Weekes" who died in 1670, and was involved in an escapade concerning fraudulent wills and mortgages.

William Wykes-Finch (d.1920), descended from the Wyke family in a female line,[15] and as reported by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1907 "the house is being restored in excellent taste".

North Wyke manor house, today part of Rothamsted Research.
The Gate House, North Wyke, drawing from "A Book of Dartmoor" by Sabine Baring-Gould , 1907
Arms of Wykes of North Wyke and of Cocktree, both in the parish of South Tawton: [ 4 ] Ermine, three battle-axes sable . [ 5 ] The similarity of these arms to those born by the prominent Wrey family later of Tawstock Court , North Devon, is suggested by Worthy (1896) to prove that they are "collateral kinsfolk of the Wykes". [ 6 ]