Floyers-Hay Court

[John T]

When strolling around the part of Exeter where I was born and brought up, I came across a relatively recent housing development at the bottom of Isca Road in St Thomas called "Floyers-Hay Court".

Does anyone know anything about this name ie meaning, origin, why it was used for this development?

[David Cornforth]

It is thought that Flowerpot Fields is a corruption of Floyer-Hay. There was a house at Haven Banks named Floyer Hayes - see this page on the main site:

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/EM/_streets/flowerpot.php

[jocie]

Henry Gould 1588 -1636 'possessed a handsome mansion, Floyers' Hayes, in St Thomas' parish' - Sabine Baring-Gould ''Further Reminiscences 1864-1894' p 75

[David Cornforth]

Your quote is quite correct Jocie, but it does not refer to Flowerpot Fields. Floyer Hayes was on Haven Banks while confusingly Hayes Barton was near to Flowerpot. It is likely that Flowerpot was the 'fields' for Floyers Haye before Hayes Barton was built. Incidentally, Floyers is a corruption of fletcher or arrow maker.

[GaryLQ]

Floyers-Hays is clearly marked on the Hogenberg map, and appears to have stood in the vacinity of the modern-day Floyers-Hay Court.

While Floyers-Hay Court may be an unremarkable modern construction, in my opinion it's a good thing that the person who had the task of naming the building went to the trouble of looking at the history of the area, and choose something more apt than usual stock modern names given to these blocks.

Click here to see the Hogenberg Map

[John T]

Jocie, David and Gary,
Thanks for the further information about Floyers-Hay Court. I do agree that it is refreshing that somebody took the trouble to give the development a name that has associations with the area. I wonder who it was because I doubt if too many people are aware of the name.

[Nick Floyer]

It is good to see this interest in our former family home.

My many-greats grandparents built and lived in Floyers Hayes before the conquest, and are recorded as Floherus and living there in the Exon Domesday Book. The site is near the junction of Haven Road and Alphington Street and, more precisely, at the western end of Williams Avenue. My grandfather found some remaining stonework in the 1920s, but I doubt if it is there still.

The name Floyer comes from 'fla', the Saxon word for an arrow, and means an arrowmaker. It is the Saxon equivalent of the Norman 'fletcher', but is not derived from it. The middle consonant was in early times written as an 'h' or omitted altogether; the 'y' came later, as in 'sawyer' and 'lawyer'. The more common surname Flower has a similar derivation.

Floyers were Port Reeves of Exeter at various times, and contributed to the building of St Thomas's church. The family moved to Dorset at the end of the sixteenth century following an advantageous marriage. Since then it has of course spread much further, in England and overseas; however, it still flourishes, conserving its long history and cherishing its origins in Exeter.