It will bee moved to its appropriate chronological position soon
An Ancient City and the Administrative Centre of Devon
The Inevitable Historical Bit
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| Devon |
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| Exeter |
The southwest was the land of the Dumnonii, at least that is what the Romans called them, what they called themselves nobody knows. The Romans arrived in 59CE and built a fort they called Isca Dumnoniorum (Watertown
of the Dumnonii) and a civilian settlement grew up around it.
The Romans left in 410 and written history stopped until the seventh century. By then Isca Dumnoniorum had become a Saxon town known as Escanceaster.
Except for a brief time in Danish hands, sorted by Alfred the Great, a
rebellion against William the Conqueror led by the wife of the recently
deceased King Harold, a spot of bother during the ‘Anarchy’ in the 12th
century, a month-long siege by the ‘Prayer Book rebels’ in 1549,
some difficulties during the Civil War and 18 Luftwaffe raids 1940-42, the city
has enjoyed 1,400 years of peaceful development. The name Escanceaster linked
the River Esc, now known as the Exe, and 'ceaster' borrowed from the Latin castrum
meaning camp. Billions of repetitions by millions of mouths across 70
generations have ground it, like a sea polished pebble, into the simpler Exeter.
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| The position of Exeter within Devon and (inset Devon within England) OS material © Crown copyright, Reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Exeter was a mercantile city, but never an industrial city. Today the largest employers of its 120,000 citizens include the
University of Exeter, Devon County Council, the NHS, and the Met Office, whose
headquarters moved here in 2004.
Exeter Quays
As we often do in May we
spent a couple of days with Torquay-based friends, Brian and Hilary. Until
today these visits have produced two blog posts, Torquay
and Around (1): Greenway, Coleton Fishacre and Brixham and Tq
& A (2): Buckfast Abbey, Newton Abbot and Compton Castle. This year B & H suggested that as every Torquay trip involved us rounding
Exeter on the M5, we should favour the city with a proper visit.
On a fine day on the cusp of spring and summer, Brian drove us the 22 miles from Torquay to Matford Park and Ride south of the city. Here our old gits bus passes
would have given us a free ride into the centre if we had not chosen to get off
halfway and stroll to the Exeter Quays.
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| Exeter Quays |
South Devon has a ria coast; every few miles a drowned river valley, formed by rising sea levels after the last ice-age, has become a tidal estuary to a small river. The Exe is a perfect
example, and as the map above shows, Exeter was built at the northern end of
the estuary at the limit of navigability.
Here, a sandstone ledge provided a natural quay for unloading ships. This worked well before and through Roman times and right up to the 13th century when a weir was built 2 miles south of the
quay. With the river blocked to larger ships, the main port moved downstream to
Topsham. The response from Exeter was hardly swift, but in 1566 a new ship canal
put Exeter port back in business. Wool, hides, and stone were exported, while
wine, tobacco, and spices came the other way. In the 17th century the quay was
extended and in 1830 a new canal basin was dug, but then, in 1840, the railway arrived and the port went into terminal decline.
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| Restored warehouse, originally built 1855 |
A series of redevelopments starting in late 20th century have regenerated the quays as an area of coffee shops, restaurants and those quirky businesses which fit
uncomfortably in city centres.
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| A quirky photograph of a mildly quirky business. I think I was trying to photograph the plaque saying this is the 1566 quay and the warehouse was bult in 1855 |
Drinking coffee was our main reason for visiting, but I will spare you a photo of four fit, dynamic (if elderly) people slurping cappuccinos.
In 2015 the Custom House (built 1680–81) was restored and reopened as a visitor centre. The Quays also hosts events ranging from Dragon Boat Racing to Street
Food Night Markets.
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| Customs House, Exeter Quays |
To Exeter City Centre and the Cathedral
The City Wall
Exeter is not usually thought of as a walled city, but
70% of the mile and a half mile long Roman wall survives in one form or another. The Quay
was, of course, just outside the wall, but it was an easy walk up to the
nearest section.
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| Following Exeter city wall up from the quays |
This part is in reasonable repair, much of the upper
wall being medieval in origin, but the stones at the base were placed there by
the Romans in around 200CE.
Parts of the wall in the way of later developments were
removed, so the line can be difficult to follow. Some of the modern buildings
are of dubious architectural merit, but a cheerful mural is always welcome.
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| Mural close to the line of Exeter city wall |
We re-found the wall near the Burnet Patch Bridge. After
the election of a new mayor on Michaelmas Day (September the 29th, as I am sure
you know) the incumbent would lead his corporation for a walk around the city
walls to check all was in order. When Burnet Patch was elected mayor in 1813,
he found that scrambling down one side of this 18th century cut, and up the
other side an irksome chore, so he had Exeter's first wrought iron bridge
constructed to save the bother. It is an elegant, if unnecessarily expensive solution
to a simple problem.
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| The Burnet Patch bridge, Exeter |
Once under the bridge we emerged beside the cathedral green.
Exeter Cathedral
The bishop’s seat was moved to Exeter from Crediton in
1050 and a pre-existing Saxon minster was used as the cathedral. The building
of a new cathedral (on the site of a Roman bathhouse) began in 1133. When
Walter Branscombe arrived as bishop in 1285, he declared the cathedral inadequate
and set about reconstructing it in Decorated Gothic style. Medieval cathedral builders
had to look to the long term, starting projects they knew they would not live to see
completed. Exeter’s Cathedral Church of Saint Peter was under construction from 1285 to 1400 – although the Chapter House and Chantry Chapels were built later.
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| Exeter Cathedral |
Decorated Gothic involves intricate stonework, ornate
tracery, and richly detailed carvings. Outside, the west front shows this off
best, with an array of medieval statues of kings, knights, angels, and saints.
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| Exeter Cathedral and its west front |
We did not go inside, but the photo below, taken on a
brief visit in 2017 shows stonework carved almost to resemble lace. It also
shows part of the ceiling which, at 96 meters, is the longest uninterrupted
vaulted ceiling in England.
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| Inside Exeter Cathedral |
The statue outside is of John Hooker (c. 1527–1601). Chamberlain
of Exeter from 1555 to his death and the city’s MP 1570/1 and 1586, he was a
historian, writer, antiquary, and civic administrator. Among much else, he
wrote a treatise on parliamentary procedure and an eye-witness account of the 1549
siege of Exeter during the Prayer Book Rebellion.
The Guildhall
A short step away, in the High Street, is Exeter
Guildhall, which claims to be the oldest municipal building in England still used
for its original purpose. I somehow failed to photograph the ornate Italian-style
portico that juts out over the pavement. It is held up by four sturdy granite columns surmounted
by carved corbels of Beer stone - limestone quarried in the nearby seaside
village of Beer and nothing to do with the hop and barley based beverage. Never mind, the portico is a late addition only added
in 1594, and instead I have a picture of the rather splendid wooden door.
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| Exeter Guildhall door |
The Guildhall has occupied this site since at least the 12th century though the current building dates from 1463-98. Apart from the 18th century chandelier, most of what we can see is from Victorian refurbishment in the 1860 and 80s. For almost eight centuries, the Guildhall was the city's Chamber and courtroom, and in the basement was a prison known as the "pytt of the Guyldhall".
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| Exeter Guildhall |
In 1685 the Guildhall was one of six locations around
the southwest of England used for the so-called Bloody Assizes that followed the Duke of Monmouth’s failed rebellion against Charles II. The vindictive liberality
with which ‘Hanging Judge’ John Jeffries and his associates dispensed death
penalties shocked even 17th century sensibilities.
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| Balcony, Exeter Guildhall |
The Guildhall is still used for official receptions,
mayoral banquets and some City Council meetings. It can also be hired for
weddings.
Lunch at the Conservatory
The Conservatory Restaurant is on the first floor of a
venerable building on North Street, just 200m from the Guildhall. Having been
here for 20 years, it is an Exeter institution.
The décor is minimalist, featuring the exposed remains
of decorations from several centuries ago.
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| Decor, Conservatoy |
They have their own style, perhaps best described as
fine dining, but without the complications or the cost that incurs, indeed
their two-course lunch was very moderately priced. There was ample choice, but
all four of us picked the same two dishes. This was unsurprising with the
rillettes; Brian and I have often lamented that while good rillettes are
available fresh in every supermarket in France, they are hard to find here. Any
opportunity must be grasped.
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| Rillettes - hiding under the gherkins, Conservatory, Exeter |
I am bad at remembering to photograph people, so here
are Brian and Hilary. They had previously shown us round Hong Kong and Macau without ever appearing in shot, so I did not want to make the same mistake here.
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| Brian and Hilary, Conservatory, Exeter |
That all four us also went for the haddock was less predictable.
I thought the combination of fish, orzo and a lemony sauce worked well, though
Lynne found the sauce a little too acidic. It looked a small portion and
relatively simple, but sometimes less is more, both in number of ingredients
and quantity of food. By the time we had eaten two courses, we did not require
a dessert.
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| Haddock and orso, Conservatory, Exeter |
[Update. The Conservatory may have been here for 20 years, but three weeks after our visit it closed.]
St Pancras Church
Despite Exeter being no industrial centre, it was heavily bombed during WW2. There were attacks in 1940, and more seriously in 1942 as
part of the ‘Baedeker raids’ on historic cities in response to the RAF bombing
of Rostock and Lübeck. The damage caused by a direct hit on the cathedral was promptly but painstakingly repaired, but the redevelopment of large areas on the city
centre took time, and the results are mixed.
The Guildhall Shopping Centre, behind the Guildhall
was only started in the early 1970s. Shopping centres are not my natural
habitat, so I will rarely if ever be enthusiastic about them, but the huge,
blank brick wall on North Street across the road from a line of much older
building, including the (former) premises of the Conservatory, has little to
recommend it.
Not all the redevelopment was barbarism; left nestling
between the Shopping Centre and the newer Food Centre is the tiny Church of St
Pancras, just 14m long by 5m wide.
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| St Pancras, Exeter |
First documented in 1191, the church has been altered over
the years and what we now see is largely 13th century. The influence of the Victorian
neo-Gothic restoration is uncharacteristically restrained.
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| Inside St Pancras, Exeter |
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Another short walk took us to the Royal Albert
Memorial Museum on Queen Street. It was the suggestion of politician Sir
Stafford Northcote in 1861, the year Prince Albert died. Richard Summers Gard,
MP for Exeter, donated the site, funds were raised by public subscription and John
Hayward won the competition to design the building.
Within RAMM, as it became known, are the origins of
Exeter University, Art College and Public Library. The museum has been enlarged
and now owns over a million objects in four collection areas: antiquities, art,
natural history and world cultures.
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| Exeter's earliest known international trade was with the eastern Mediterranean, |
It is a treasure house, and while the Percy Sladen
collection of echinoderms might be a tad niche, there is something to interest
everyone. As such collections have no real narrative, the best I can do is
offer some photographs of artefacts that caught my eye. It is not the best
piece of Museum photography I have done, but sometimes you win and sometimes
you have to settle for a no-score draw.
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| Roman vase (pity about the reflections). Exeter was once, of course, a Roman City |
Exeter was never a major port and unlike like Bristol or Liverpool had no direct involvement in the slave trade, but there were voyages to and trade with the New World.
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| The Trans-Atlantic connection, RAMM |
Nine generations of the Takahashi family made pottery in Kyoto. The ninth generation focused on the export market; the Satsuma vases inspired
the Japonism design movement in the west.
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| Takahashi Vases, RAMM |
I am not sure what connection the Buddha images have
with Exeter. The one in the centre is labelled as being from Myanmar. The two
on the outside look Thai to me – and since when have I been an expert?
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| Buddha images, RAMM |
The museum is well worth a visit, should you ever be in the area. Once we had finished, we found our way to the appropriate bus stop, headed back to the Park and Ride and thence
to Torquay
Exeter (2024)
Torqay and Around (2) Buckfast Abbey, Newton Abbot and Compton Castle (2022)
Torquay and Around (1) Greenway, Coleton Fishacre and Brixham (2016)
