Exwick's 'County Steam Laundry'

The naming of the various mills in Exwick has caused much confusion with historians, but some careful teasing out of the evidence unearths the Exwick Lower Mill's existence as a fulling, paper and corn mill before it became the County Steam Laundry. The mill was situated opposite Exwick Hill, on the east side of St Andrews Road. It should not to be confused with the Lower Mill of Banfill and Granger, nor the Lower Mill next to the Old Manor or Higher Mill, now known as Exwick Mill. For the pedants, it was the middle of the three mills in Exwick during the 19th-Century.

The Fulling Mill

The earliest document in the Devon Record Office is a lease for the Lower Mill, dated 1765, from John Tuckfield to Alderman Joseph Elliot and another, the same year to John Baring of Mount Radford. This suggests that the mill was still to be built, as the leases are concerned with the rights of the share of water in the leat and its repair, rather than a standing mill building. John and Charles Baring's ownership of the fulling mill, is confirmed in a document of 1801. In 1805, the Sherbourne Mercury carried a for sale advert for the four fulling or shamey mills, still occupied by Baring and Co, and soon after a notice in the Flying Post confirmed the sale. Although the buyer was not mentioned, a document from 1807 confirms James Buller of Downes was the new owner. 

The Paper Mill

In 1805, Thomas Bedford Pim leased the mill which he rebuilt for the manufacturing of paper. This was not the first paper mill in Exwick, for a mill existed in 1673, although its location is uncertain. A fire at Pim's mill on December 4 1809, and investigated as arson, perpetrated by Mr Pim, was not proven. Pim resumed paper manufacturing, but in 1813 was declared bankrupt. Mr Pim was also prosecuted by the Hope Insurance Co for a fraud related to the fire, in which it is alleged he committed perjury, having taken out two mortgages on the property without telling the company.

The mill probably remained closed until it was leased by Buller to Richard French in 1818, and who, in 1821, went into partnership with Edward Pim. It was during the 1820's that Exwick House was built on Field Meadow, land that belonged to the mill, and thus becoming the mill house. There were various short lived occupiers for the rest of the 1820's including Charles Squire in 1824.

It is not clear who ran the mill in the 1830s, although in 1832, the Times carried an advert for the mill, with  '... a modern and substantially built dwelling house' and land, for sale. The 1841 census shows John Vickery and John Butt as paper makers in Exwick, while John Butt was still working as a paper maker in 1851. The paper mill was a very small concern in comparison with Countess Wear Paper Mill which employed 39 locals, plus others from Exeter in 1851, to three employees for Exwick.

Exwick Paper Mill was referred to in an advert of April 1843, for the sale of paper making equipment and utensils, as well as rag, due to a distress warrant, although the owner was not mentioned. John Dewdney Jun., was working the mill in September 1853. In 1858 there was a sale of Dewdney's furniture as he was leaving the district. William Sawton was the last paper maker at the Lower Mill, but not before he was fined in July 1861, £1,400  by the Revenue for altering stamps on reams of paper to avoid paying the paper tax. In 1862 Maunder's old woollen mill 60 yards further down the leat burnt down, and both mills were put up for sale to be purchased by the Bullers. The paper mill measured 100 by 60 ft and had two working wheels.

A corn miller at Exwick Mill, named Thomas Shore, branched out and opened a Turkish bath in the village. Although there are no records giving the location of the facility, it  opened just two months after Sawton was fined for tax avoidance, and it is likely that the enterprise was based in the vacant paper mill.

The Corn Mill

The next record of the mill appears in 1869 when it was advertised for sale – it was 'newly erected with 3¾ acres of land and a commodious house suitable for any business that requires power.' A Mr Horswell took on the lease, moved into Exwick House, and ran his milling business until 1882 when he was declared bankrupt. In the same year a Mr Rossiter, whose lease on his mill in Totnes had expired was encouraged by one of his sons to take the vacant mill in Exwick; however, family differences were taken to court in 1890 when the son was the defendant and his father and brother the plaintiffs in a dispute over the partnership. Rossiter ceased milling and the mill became vacant. 

The Steam Laundry

Mrs Jane Oldridge leased the mill from the Bullers in May 1893, the machinery was put up for sale in June 1893 and by September, it opened as the County Steam Laundry, managed by Mr and Mrs Frederick Edgar as managers. The first advert said 'The County Steam Laundry, Exwick, Exeter is now open for the reception of every description of laundry.... first-class steam laundry worked on sanitary principles.... also an extensive Meadow for Open-Air drying'

In January 1897 business was expanding for they advertised 'wanted, Best Shirt Ironers, piecework, 1s 6d per dozen'. In the 1891 census, before the laundry opened, there were several individuals listed as launderers in Exwick, and it may well have been these services that indicated a market for laundry services. An expanding middle class, as well as a hotel trade in the growing city of Exeter, and further afield in the new seaside towns, required laundry services, and Exwick was not the only suburb to provide such facilities. The 1901 census lists fifteen laundry workers living in Exwick and another fourteen working from home, probably as outworkers processing delicate items.

Mr and Mrs Edgar were presented with a silver tea and coffee set when they left the laundry to run the Grapes Inn, South Street in 1899. Charles Gracey was the manager before the First World War; he enlisted as a Major, was awarded the DSO, and was killed in battle in October 1916 at the age of 23.

A fire, on 2 December 1941, at the County Steam Laundry destroyed several thousand pounds worth of clothing, including officers' uniforms and workers' overalls, gutting the top of the building, but leaving the ground floor, and machinery, relatively intact. Aerial photos of the time show the mill without a roof. The laundry was relocated into temporary premises behind Exwick House, before the top floor was removed and a new flat roof added; it was back in operation by 1948. 

The laundry was often flooded and photographs from the 1950s show a laundry delivery van at the entrance, up to its wheel hubs in water. More modern laundries such as Kneels in Cowley Bridge Road, forced the County Steam Laundry to close in 1980, and in December 1982 this very visible remnant of a past age was demolished. Exwick House was sold, and divided into flats in the same year.