Bull Meadow

This park situated between Holloway Street and Magdalen Street is the last open remnant of the Chutebrook (aka Sutebrook and Shytebrook) Valley. The Chutebrook rose in Chute Street and flowed past the bottom of Paris Street, was crossed by Magdalen Street and flowed into the Exe at the bottom of Colleton Hill. The name is a corruption of the Saxon 'shyte' because it was used as a conduit for human sewage. The whole watercourse was buried in a conduit, after the 1832 cholera outbreak, and now carries only storm water.

The park was named after the Bull Inn, which was first mentioned in 1487 and which was situated on Magdalen Street. In the 16th and 17th Century, Bull Meadow, along with most of Friernhay was used for the racks on which were hung serges for drying. The park was designated, a few years after it opened, as a Recreation and Pleasure Ground in 1889. It was originally surrounded by iron railings and gates, which were removed during the Second World War for scrap. On one side at the top of the recreation ground are two burial grounds, one dissenters and one Jewish.

When St Leonards along Wonford Road was being developed, Messrs Hooper, a local builder, built a viaduct across the Chutebrook above Bull Meadow to raise Magdalen Street and flatten the approach to South Street. There was a substantial amount of earth used to cross the culvert - a retaining wall of Pocombe stone was built on each side, capped with Dartmoor granite. An arch was constructed at one end, just before Bull Hill, for the Chutebrook to flow through. The Bull Meadow carpark on the corner of the inner by-pass and Magdalen Road is also at the level of the bottom of the valley, as is Bull Meadow itself. When the inner bypass was being planned, one design routed the road in the form of an overpass across Bull Meadow to meet Holloway Street near Melbourne Street. The actual bypass necessitated the removal of the retaining wall on one side as the road was raised above the valley floor.

The City Council have created a small meadow of long grasses to boost insects for the local bat population, and installed nesting boxes to encourage the birds. Now the park contains a play area for children with a five-a-side pitch for children. There is also seating suitable for people to picnic.