Dix's Field

The Georgian Dix's Field was named after William Spicer Dix (1736-1804), a brewer from Exe Lane, who owned the land. Dix was also Master of the Worshipful Company of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen of Exeter in 1774. A bowling green was located on Dix's Field and the site of the Congregational Church according to Benjamin Donn's 1765 map of Exeter.

Dix advertised the land, in January 1796, for sale or lease for development as houses, according toplans and designs that he hadprepared.Within two years, the Exeter papers reported a meeting of the creditors of William Spicer Dix and his son John. William Dix died at Sampford Peverell in September 1804 at the age of 68, never seeing the fine houses constructed by Nosworthy.

After the bankruptcy, Matthew Nosworthy secured possession of the land and proceeded to build two Georgian terraces, comprising of opposite rows of houses with a central green. His houses were designed to match those that were already in Southernhay, although the internal layout for each house was customised for each owner. Each house had a rear garden and running water, a new innovation for Exeter. The front faced a central lawned pleasure ground surrounded by a sweeping road for carriages.

In February of the same year, Messrs Trewmans, the printers of the Flying Post advertised a house in Dix's Field to rent with "five bed-rooms, two good sitting-rooms, kitchen, &c." This was probably one of the first houses to be complete for it took Nosworthy twenty years to complete the development. In September 1842, Nosworthy's son put up four lots of land for sale to the west of his development. It was stipulated that any new construction matched the buildings already on the site.

They were houses for the well off with Sir Henry Carew, Sir Charles Dalrymple, Henry Blackall (mayor three times) and Nosworthy himself. A sale was held in 1845, at Henry Blackall's house, of household furniture, following hisdeath on 19 February 1845.Mrs Miles, who had the Clock Tower erected at Queen Street in memory of her husband, also lived in Dix's Field. When Miles was alive, his house would often be visited by horse men and women seeking his ideas on shoeing horse, which would be demonstrated at the stables to the rear of his house.

By 1848, the two terraces were attracting members of the medical profession and Mr Cartwright advertised his dental practice at 23 Dix's Field. In 1861, a second dental practice was established at 2 Dix's Field, although by 1868, the address had become the home of Monsieur J Picard, chiropodist. In the early years of the 19th-Century there were also several dance schools established at different times, in Dix's Field, for young gentlemen and ladies.

The Bathhouse

On 15 March 1820, it was announced that a site had been purchased on the corner of Dix's Field and Southernhay with the aim of building a public bathhouse. The grand, neo-classical bathhouse which opened on 3 December 1821, was meant for the patronage of the wealthy. The building was stuccoed, and said to have looked rather shabby after a few years. It was demolished and replaced by the Congregational church in 1868.

Dix's Field was no street for the poor and deprived, conditions that increased your risk when the cholera struck the city in 1832, while the gentile Dix's Field had only one death.

A property sale in 1896 saw No. 17 sell for £610, while No. 10 was sold for £320; that is quite a difference in price, probably accounted for by condition.

Destruction in 1942

They were rather magnificent terraces which were sadly, severely damaged in the May 1942 bombing. Thomas Sharp, in his Exeter Phoenix plan, advised that 23 out of 24 houses, could be saved, as their basic structure was burnt out, rather than collapsed, but sadly most were demolished, leaving only four houses from one terrace remaining.

Part of the bombed site was taken over by Exeter City Council. They built the Civic Centre in 1969, which was designed by local architect Vinton Hall. The offices consist of two, white cube structures with chamfered edges, along with a built in nuclear bunker.

For Exeter they are considered high rise and in my view, they are one of the more successful modern buildings in the city. When the Civic Centre was being planned, one model for the proposed complex consisted of three rectangular blocks in the style of Debenhams!