Weycroft, Axminster

[2] The manor of Wigegroste is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 52nd[4] of the 58[5] Devonshire landholdings of Ralph de la Pomeroy (d. pre-1100), (alias Pomeraie, Pomerei, etc.

He was lord of the manor of La Pommeraye, Calvados in Normandy[7] and was one of the two commissioners appointed to carry to the royal treasury at Winchester the tax collected in Devon resulting from the assessment made based upon the Domesday Book survey.

[9] The pre-Norman Conquest holder was a Saxon named "Viking" (who held Axminster itself), whose large Devonshire landholdings lay entirely within Ralph's future barony and within that of his brother William Cheever, feudal baron of Bradninch,[10] Devon.

They flourished there until 1603 when Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham (1564–1619) was attainted for his part in a plot to overthrow King James I, when the peerage became abeyant and his lands were forfeited to the crown.

Thomas II Brooke, the first prominent member of that family, made Weycroft his seat "with newe building castlewise" (Pole (d.1635)); Risdon (d.1640) states that he "built here, on the rising of an hill, a fair new house, castle-like, and enclosed a large and spacious park, being a very pleasant scite over the river (i.e. River Axe) and hath a good prospect".

[39] This refers to a royal licence to crenellate and empark dated 1427, granted to Sir Thomas III Brooke and his probable feoffees Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, Sir Giles Daubeney and others: The creation of the huge 800 acre deer park caused a dispute with his powerful neighbour at nearby Shute House, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (1392-1461).

[46] The manor of Weycroft was later split into two parts, one of which became the property of the Mallock family of Cockington Court, Tor Mohun, Devon and descended by marriage to Mr Bilk of Axminster, the owner in 1810.

John Swete (1752-1821) of Oxton House, Kenton in Devon, visited Weycroft as part of his ongoing "Picturesque Tour of Devon" and painted a watercolour image of it, and recorded the event as follows in his Travel Journal:[48] In 2016 at the end of a tenancy and having been owned by the same family for several generations, the seven-bedroom main house, three-bed annexe, one-bed cottage and three-bedroom lodge and 80 acres of land was offered for sale via estate agents Strutt & Parker in Exeter.

The manor house at Weycroft in 2006
Weycroft Mill in 2009, the site of the ancient manorial mill
Arms of Pomeroy, adopted at the start of the age of heraldry, c. 1200-1215: Or, a lion rampant guardant gules armed and langued azure a bordure engrailed sable [ 3 ]
Arms of Gobodislegh: Sable, a fess chequy or and gules between three crosses patée of the second , as seen sculpted in relief on the monument of Denys Rolle (1614–1638) in the Rolle Mausoleum in Bicton Old Church, Devon
Arms of Cristenstow of Weycroft: Azure, a bend party per bend indented or and ermine two cotises of the third [ 21 ]
Arms of Dennis of Weycroft, Holcombe Burnell & Bicton, Devon: Ermine, three Danish battle-axes erect gules
Arms of Denys Rolle (1614–1638) on his monument in the Rolle Mausoleum in Bicton Old Church, showing 10 quarters including: 2: Dennis of Weycroft, 6: Bockerell, 7: Cristenstowe of Weycroft, 8: Gobodislegh of Weycroft and 9: Chiderleigh, illustrating part of the descent of Weycroft
Arms of Brooke of Weycroft & of Holditch in the parish of Thorncombe, Devon (now Dorset), Barons Cobham: Gules, on a chevron argent a lion rampant sable crowned or [ 37 ]
Monumental brass of Sir Thomas II Brooke (died 1418) and his wife Joan Hanham (d.1437), Thorncombe Church
"Wygoft", 1795 watercolour by Rev. John Swete