Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Exeter

Exeter is an ancient cathedral city in Devon, which could fairly be regarded as the capital of England's West Country. It stands on the River Exe.

It was the furthest West of Britain's Roman towns, known as Isca Dumnoniorum. Although the City Walls are not as extensive as those at Colchester, they share with the Essex town the distinction of being Roman as opposed to mediaeval.

Exeter Cathedral has two massive Norman towers, and amazing vaulting in the nave. The cathedral houses a mediaeval clock, an early depiction of an elephant and the Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon poetry, compiled about 975.

There are remains of a Norman castle known as Rougemont Castle, and the Guildhall is probably the oldest civic building in England.

The city has a number of small churches, mostly built of the local red sandstone, dotted around the centre.

The old docks house an interesting Maritime Museum.

Exeter suffered badly during the Second World War from the Baedecker Raids, but although much of the centre was destroyed a good deal of historical interest remains.

People born in Exeter include Rev. Sabine Baring Gould, writer of "Onward Christian Soldiers"; Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library; Nicholas Hilliard, miniaturist; Richard Hooker. theologian; W.G.Hoskins, founder of the study of local history while lecturing at Leicester; and William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury.