Shilhay

The heart of Exeter's woolen industry was situated at or near to Shilhay. Up to the 9th century, it was largely a sand, gravel and mud covered bank with reeds, on the east bank of the Exe below the city wall. There is evidence that the Saxons had built leats to drain the land and developed the area for industrial use. Nicholas Gervase, who built the first Exe bridge, developed the area for industry by building a mill. The Courtenay's who owned Shilhay and had granted Gervase permission to develop it, added further leats and fulling mills. Within a few years the land had been raised and there were 20 or so waterwheels fulling wool and grinding corn in Exe Island and Shilhay. In the 16th century it was known as 'The Shellye'. The island was known as Greater Shilhay while the land between Coney Lake and the Lower Leat was Little Shilhay.

The wool was processed in fulling mills to strengthen the cloth and then vast amounts of water and ammonia was used to clean the wool. Urine was the source of the ammonia which was collected by 'piss carts' which toured the city picking up the contents of chamber pots from inns, taverns and households. The cloth was hung on racks and stretched on tenter-frames from 'tenterhooks' to dry. A tenterhook was L shaped, about 5 cms long with a pointed long side.

The rack fields were always under threat from flooding as reported in the Flying Post in January 1809. "The tenter racks in the Bonhay and Shilley(sic) were completely covered, and many of them carried away, with the pieces of them."

Coney Lake

The canal like cut that separated Shilhay from the area to the west of the lower leat was not a natural feature – in the 18th Century the bulge of Shilhay was covered with rack fields while mills, a coal yard and the Bodleys Foundry occupied land along either side of City Road (later renamed Commercial Road). In December 1804 a notice appeared in the Flying Post requesting that "... persons as shall be willing to contract for allotments of ground, in the Great Shilhay ... through which a canal is intended to be cut, for bringing up goods from the quay, to the said allotments of ground ..."

Nothing happened until June 1809 when another notice placed by the City Surveyor requested suitable contractors to tender to cut a canal level with the river bed and about 40 ft in width from the coal yard at the quay, across the Greater Shilhay, to emerge just below Exe Bridge. By August a notice appeared announcing that there were several plots of land for lease " ... adjoining the Canal, now cutting there." Eventually, two small bridges were built to join the new island of Shilhay to the land adjoining Commercial Road.

During the cholera epidemic of 1832, the rackfields of Shilhay, along with fields at Lion's Holt, were used for burning and burying the clothes of the infected victims. It was a convenient, open space, and close to the West Quarter, which had suffered more victims of cholera than any other part of the city.

Heavy Industry

Bodley Brothers, who had been going since 1790, and Bodley and Taylor were the two iron foundries on Little Shilhay, producing everything from parts for traction engines, carriage fittings and huge gear wheels for industry. Elsewhere, along Commercial Road, during the early 20th century could be found, Openheimer's the sausage skin makers, W Brown the engineers, Horwill's the forage merchants, Kennaway's the wine and spirit merchants and the Sweden & Norway Vice-Consulate, reflecting the timber import trade into Gabriel's Yard.

Greater Shilhay became a vast timber yard run by Gabriel & Co, along with J L Thomas, candle makers and J L Thomas' Sunlight Soap Works. It was the development of Haven Banks, and especially Marsh Barton, that saw a decline in industry in the area, after the Second War.

Shilhay was constantly changing, as some industries declined and others prospered. Land became derelict and then reused. The Foresters Arms stood on the corner of Commercial Road and the main entrance to Gabriel's Yard. It was demolished and a large area of ground became a Pleasure Garden in the middle of an industrial landscape. It may have never had roses, but it provided an area for children to play football.

Shilhay, and Gabriel's Yard were hit by a whirlwind in the second decade of the twentieth century, forcing people to shelter from the flying debris. The whirlwind is remembered by Cyril Brown.

Residential Shilhay

Now, Shilhay has been raised to protect it from flooding - in October 1979, a competition run by the Secretary of State for the Environment and the IRBA for a new residential development declared a winner, Marshman, Warren and Taylor. Their winning design, numbered 150 homes built around several courtyards named after woollen trades such as Fuller, Weaver and Dyer. The press said 'City's Colditz wins design prize'. In the event, the result was later referred to as 'well designed and successfully relates to the existing area'.

Shilhay is now a pleasant residential area on the edge of the historic quay with two of the liveliest clubs in Exeter occupying the old bonded warehouses.

Sources: Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, Express & Echo and the reminisces of Cyril Brown.