Areas of Exeter

Alphington *
Beacon Heath
Countess Wear *
Duryard
Exeter - its name
Exwick *
Exe Island *
Haven Banks
Heavitree
Hillscourt *
Larkbeare Mount Radford

Beacon Heath

This area in Exeter was named because there used to be a fire beacon on Beacon Hill. Heath Barton was owned by the 14th century, Hugo atte Hethe, hence 'Heath'.

It is possibly there was a fire beacon in Roman times, as it is known that Stoke Hill was a Roman lookout point. The Romans may have frequented the Beacon Lane area as coins from the period of the Emperor Nero have been found there. Coins from this period are normally found in the Eastern Mediterranean, leading archaeologists to think they may be part of a more recent, lost collection. It would be nice if a Roman had lost them.

In 1688, Celia Fiennes visited Exeter on a tour of England. She rode from Cullompton via Beacon Heath - the city was far smaller then and she had her first view of the city below. She later wrote of what she saw, "the River Exe which runs to Topsham where the ships come up to the bar".

The area is now residential, with a large expansion of postwar housing estates to replace bomb damaged stock. St James' High School, in the area, takes children from the whole of north east Exeter.

Duryard

This area is associated with the University in the north of the city. The area was once the hunting land of the Anglo-Saxon kings which was in the manor of Duryard. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon dear (deer) and geard (fold).

In 1897 Duryard was comparatively sparsely populated. The professions of the people who lived there give a good idea of the area.

Dairy man - Cowley Road Lower Duryard
Haulier - Cowley Road
Market gardeners  - three in Cowley Road
Private residences - three in private addresses.

The 1919 Kelly's Directory shows a more than doubling in private residences.

Private residences - seven in private addresses
Market gardeners - three
Fruit grower

Early Exeter and its name

There was a Celtic settlement, possibly in the north-west quarter of the city, in the Bartholomew Street area. The High Street is an ancient route, dating from the Iron Age, following a ridge from the Fore Street/Bartholomew Street area, along Sidwell Street and up to Stoke Hill and beyond.

When the Romans arrived in 49AD, the local Celtic name for Exeter was Caerwysc, meaning 'the fortified town on the Exe'. During the siege by Vespasian to capture the settlement, they called it Caer-pen-huel-goit, 'the fortified town on the hill near the high or great wood', The wood was probably in the Duryard area to the north. They established a settlement, including the High Street trackway and the Early British settlement, although it wasn't for 60 years before they created the city grid layout with baths, basilica, market place and the raised city wall.

Soon after capture, the settlement became Isca Dumnoniorum - Dumnoniorum is 'capital city of the Dumnonii', after the Celtic tribe that inhabited the south-west from Lands End up to Somerset. The Isca is from the Celtic word, Eisca, meaning a river full of fish, although some sources say it just means 'water'.

From Whiskey to Exeter
I have long held an interest in malt whiskey and was aware of the root of the word whiskey as the Gaelic Uisge beatha, which literally means water of life or in Latin aqua vitae. Uisge is pronounced in a similar way to Isca. So it may be that Isca has the same route as the Celtic Gaelic Uisge. I'll have to open an Exeter distillery using Exe water of course!

After the Romans
From about 450 the settlement was known as 'Moncton' due to the large number of monks based in the area. It was King Athelston in about 928 who is credited with changing the name of the fledgling city to 'Exancaester'.
Other names for Exeter over the years have included:

Exonia (Latin form) - Excestre (the medieval form) - Uxela Exoniensis - means 'of Exeter' hence Johannes Exoniensis Exonian - someone from Exeter

The Bishop of Exeter traditionally signs his name as forename Exon eg Michael Exon.

The River Exe was especially noted for salmon and in ancient times, there were probably as many salmon in the river as there can be found in present day Alaskan rivers. It was noted that in 1993 about 1,600 salmon were caught, while during 2003, only 143 were taken by rod fishermen. Commercial net fishing is still carried out at Topsham, with ever diminishing returns.

Haven Banks

The area opposite the quay roughly from the canal basin to the southern Exe Bridge is called Haven Banks. This was once an industrial area with a railway line to the canal basin, an oil depot, an electricity generating station and more. The upper part of Haven Banks, opposite Shilhay, was often used for travelling fairs.

James Cossins remembered the area of the canal basin before it was built "Opposite the quay within the enclosed wall and basin was a rough piece of undulating ground, with a stagnant pool of water, which in winter was a place of resort for skating and sliding on the ice." Early maps clearly show a long, sausage shaped depression.

The engineer James Green advised the city to build a canal basin, which was added in 1830. Known as the New Cut, it utilised the long, water filled depression already mentioned; he created a large semicircle cut out of the parallel sides to allow the turning of large boats. In 1844 the railway reached Exeter and the canal and basin lost trade to the GWR, and even extending the railway to the basin did not improve the situation.

In the 20th century, trade continued with petrol, oil, timber, coal, cement and even potatoes passing through the port. However, the decline of the woollen industry meant that exports dropped significantly.

The area has been largely reclaimed for domestic housing and small cafés and shops.

Heavitree

A probable meaning of Heavitree is that of a heafod treow,which means 'the head tree' or execution place. The tree of the gallows was used to hang the rope, and on which the heads of criminals were sometimes displayed. The Wessex King Cenwealh established a chapel at the position of the head tree in Wonford in about 660.

Heavitree was part of the manor of Wonford, but its location on the main road to London saw it expand. The area was also a favourite for the wealthy to settle in the 18th and 19th centuries as the city became crowded, and to escape cholera and other disease. Heavitree provided w('streets_and_areas/ with workers, food and other services. It was not until 1913 that Heavitree UDC was incorporated into Exeter with the Exeter (Extension) Order.

Richard Hooker the 16th century author of the 'Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity' and Cliff Bastin, the Exeter Arsenal and England footballer were born in Heavitree.

A longer article is in preparation

Larkbeare

This area was a deep wooded valley and, unsurprisingly, noted for the many larks in the woods. Beare is an ancient name for 'woods'.

A large castellated house named Larkbeare House was built in the 16th century where Holloway Street and Roberts Road meet. In 1737 the house was purchased by John Baring, of the Baring Bank family. The grounds spread to extensive rackfields at this time. They disposed of the house in 1832 and it was partly demolished in 1889.

A son of Larkbeare was John Bowring, who was born in Great Larkbeare, in 1792. After learning a variety of foreign languages, he travelled widely, and then became the Governor of Hong Kong. He also introduced the florin to British coinage with the intention of establishing decimal currency to the country - eventually achieved in 1971.

Mount Radford

In 1570 a wealthy Exonian called Lawrence Radford built a house at the end of what would become St Leonards Road, on the Mount Radford Lawn. He named the house Radford Place. During the Civil War the house was fortified, along with many other properties around Exeter. In common with some other fortified houses it had Mount added to its name to become Mount Radford.

John Baring who had become a wealthy trader in Exeter wool and had gone on to found Barings Bank in London, purchased Mount Radford House.

Baring had bought parts of St Leonards in the 18th century and in 1770 converted Mount Radford into an elegant red brick Georgian house. St Leonards Road was in fact a private drive from Magdalen Road to the house. In the 1820's there was a building boom in Exeter and Sir Thomas Baring, John's son, sold off large tracts of land for development, including what would become Baring Crescent. Sometime later, the whole area was renamed Mount Radford, after the house. The house was demolished in 1902 to make way for Barnardo Road and the grounds are now a primary school.

Pennsylvania    

This area was named after the US state, by Joseph Sparkes, a Quaker banker who built the terrace in about 1820. He lived in 1 Pennsylvania Terrace. The name for the terrace was then extended to the road and the area that was formerly Marypole Head.

Pennsylvania is between the ancient deer park of Duryard, and Stoke Hill. The road that led to the Roman Signal Station was through Pennsylvania.

The high ground to the north of the city was the last area to be developed due to the steep sided valleys. Extensive private estates were built in the 1960's and 1970's towards the top of the slopes.

A prominent figure, born in Pennsylvania was Leopold Agar Denys Montague (1861-1940). Not only did he play an important part in the affairs of Pennsylvania, but he also collected Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities. Much of this collection can be seen in the Royal Albert Museum.

Redhills

This hilly area to the west of the River Exe is named after the red earth hill on which it is situated. It is found at the back of St Thomas, and stretches from roughly, Exwick Road to the top of the hill before Nadderwater.

The area was largely rural until after the last war. Since then, several large estates of council and private housing have been built. Many of these houses have some very fine views across the Exe, to the city. Probably the oldest building is Redhill's Hospital, which has recently been refurbished for apartments.

St David's

Named after the church situated on St David's Down, the parish has been in existence from late Anglo-Saxon Times, St David's was a haven for the Saxon refugees from the city after it was taken by William I in 1068. Traditionally, the parish boundary stretched from the northern city wall to beyond the Cowley Bridge, and from the river Exe in the west to Higher Duryard in the east.

Only the occasional pack horse or traveller from North Devon travelled the main road through the parish to the Northgate. The steep Lower North Street made the journey into Exeter difficult for carts and carriages until the ironbridge was completed across the Longbrook Valley.

St David's Down, was a largely agricultural area, serving the needs of Exeter. It was in the 19th-century, that St David's became a popular place for the wealthier middle class to settle. St Clements Lane, just above St David's Station is one of the most ancient outside the city wall and once led to St Clement's Chapel, on the floodplain. The famous Lammas Fair in Exeter originated in St David's when 'bread, wine, ale and victuals' were bought and sold.

St Davids Hill was the main road until New North Road replaced it in the 19th century. The Exeter historian W G Hoskins was born in St David's Hill.

Whipton

The main road to Taunton from Devon and Cornwall used to pass through the Whipton before reaching the city. The village was bypassed in the 1930's by the Pinhoe Road. Honeylands was a prominent house built in 1711, and owned by the Hare family who ran the Devon and Exeter Stores that was situated in Exeter High Street, just opposite Bedford Street. The Hare's moved out to the Red House Hotel in 1920 and in 1923 a member of the Wills Tobacco family donated Honeylands to the City Council. It became a sanitarium for children who suffered predominantly from TB. It is now the Vranch House School for children with physical difficulties.

Another important facility is the Whipton Exhibition Site. From 1956 it was the home of the annual Devon and Exeter Show before it moved out to Westpoint Arena in 1989. It is now used for the Exeter Arena, an athletics facility.

The name comes from the Saxon owner of the land, Wippa - hence Wippa's Farm.

Wonford

The land surrounding Exeter had been part of the Celtic kings estates from before the Romans. In 7th century these lands continued to be a large royal estate of the Saxon kings. This royal estate was called Wonford after a stream (now called Mincinglake) that rose on the southern slopes of Stoke Hill and flowed through Northbrook Park. In 937, the name was wynford meaning fair stream. These lands were gradually reduced in size, until the only remaining hunting ground remaining at the Norman invasion was Duryard, north of the city.

Although St Michael's Church in Heavitree is Victorian, it stands on the place of one of the oldest churches outside Exeter. The Wessex King Cenwealh, established a chapel at this position near the sacred head tree in Wonford in about 660. The area became known as Heavitree, and Wonford shrank as Heavitree grew.

It is difficult to define the modern Wonford as it is not a political area, but most Exonians know where you mean, when you say 'Wonford'. Wonford Road winds from Magdalen Road to the junction with Barrack Road. Exeter's main hospital, the Royal Devon and Exeter, is situated in Wonford.