Exeter is located within Exeter local authority area. Historically it formed part of Wonford Hundred. It falls within Exeter Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 17398 in 1801 47185 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £36/12/04. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at over £200. In 1641/2 3500 adult males signed the Protestation returns. It is recorded as a borough from 1066 and was incorporated in 1537. It had parliamentary representation from 1295-date. A turnpike was established in 1753. The community had a grammar school from 1637. A market is recorded from the 14th century.

You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.

Maps: The image below is of the Exeter area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.

On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 80/6+ Six inch (1:10560) sheet 80NW,NE,SW,SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX921925. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX99SW+, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 114, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 325 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Exeter as included in the Library's Etched on Devon's memory website. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.

A selection of historical sources on districts of Exeter

Detailed information on different parts of Exeter can be difficult to extract as many sources cover the City as a whole. Nevertheless there are sources which do provide information that can be extracted relatively easily. These include the census, 1841-1901, which is arranged firstly by parish or enumeration district and then in street order, and large scale Ordnance Survey maps, particularly the six inch and 25 inch to a mile sheets for about 1890, 1906 and the 1930s. Trade directories from 1874 onwards provide listings arranged by street, but these normally cover the whole city in one alphabetical sequence. The table below gives an indication of where to look for separate listings for individual communities, as well as referring to other sources, such as the start date of parish registers and local volumes of the Exeter Civic Society's Discovering Exeter series. Other works on particular parts of Exeter can be found by searching for works on Exeter and the district name as the keyword on the main place search web page. There may also be cutting and information files in the Westcountry Studies Library on individual districts, streets or institutions located within the district. For information on the type of listings available for parishes in central Exeter, using St Pancras as an example, see the page on inhabitant lists on the history trail.

EXETER. The history of Exeter is to be treated fully in a separate volume of this series. [This was published as Two thousand years in Exeter reissued with an updated section by Hazel Harvey in 2004.] The following account is no more than the briefest outline of the subject. Exeter, now a city of some 75,000 people, is one of the historic cities of England. The Romans halted their advance on the Exe: beyond lay the Celtic West into which they did not bother to penetrate. And here, on a steep-sided ridge rising a hundred feet above the river-frontier, they founded about A.D. 50 the town of Isca, which took its name from the river. Isca became the tribal capital of the Dumnonii, the people who occupied Devon and Cornwall, and at Isca Dum-noniorum their kings must have reigned for centuries. Ever since that time, Exeter has been the provincial capital of Western England, as well as the scene of many events important in national history.

Since 1050 it has been the seat of a bishopric; since 1068 it has had a castle; since the 12th century (if not earlier) there has been a guildhall in the High Street. Its mayors begin very shortly after those of London. Exeter had a mayor in 1205, second only to Winchester among the provincial cities.

From the l0th century to the 18th it was a considerable port, at times the third or fourth in the country, for it lay at the head of a fine estuary and also at the lowest bridging point of the river, where land and sea-traders met. Even now, outpaced in industry and commerce, it remains the administrative capital of South-Western England, and has the largest hinterland west of Bristol. Its archives are among the richest in England, unsurpassed perhaps by any city outside London. Though the history of Exeter has been closely interwoven with that of Devon from Roman times onwards, and can hardly be separated from it, the city has also had a rich, unique life of its own. A more detailed account of its origins, history, and buildings will be found in my Old Exeter(1952), which is obtainable locally, and also in the official guide (Historic Exeter), which is free from most of the blemishes of such publications.

Of the Roman period there remain considerable stretches of masonry in the city walls, which survive largely intact. The Roman portions (built about A.D. 200)are best seen in West Street, in Northernhay, and in Southernhay. Many Roman objects found in the city at different times can be seen in the city museum in Queen Street.

Of the Saxon period nothing survives except a few fragments of walling here and there. The Norman period is re-presented by the castle (Rougemont), built by William the Conqueror in 1068, of which the main gateway, the curtain wall, and one tower survive in Rougemont Gardens. It is also represented in the remarkable twin towers of the Cathedral {1114-33), and in St. Mary Arches church, perhaps the most complete Norman church in Devon.

The architectural history of the Cathedral is a complicated story of which fuller details will be found in the official guide-books. The main structure is as perfect an example of early 14th century architecture as Salisbury is of the early 13th. Internally, Exeter may well claim to be the loveliest of all English cathedrals, with its vista of blue-grey Purbeck marble columns, soaring to a rich ribbed vault that is unique in England. The Cathedral Library, open to visitors on Tuesdays and Fridays, contains some of the greatest English treasures, notably the famous Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon poetry and the Exon Domesday.

Next to the Cathedral, the Guildhall is the most interesting building in the city. The present hall was built in 1330, and remodelled in 1468-9, which is the date of the fine roof. The portico over the pavement of the High Street is Elizabethan (IS92"s). The hall is hung with portraits, including two by Sir Peter Lely of Queen Henrietta Maria and General Monk.

The little medieval parish churches of the city are more picturesque than interesting, but the visitor should certainly see St. Mary Arches, St. Martin, and St. Mary Steps. Among the other noteworthy ecclesiastical buildings are St. Nicholas's Priory, in the Mint, and Polsloe or St. Katherine's Priory, on the E. outskirts of the city. Wynard's Almshouses, founded 1430, make an attractive group of red sandstone buildings around a cobbled courtyard. The Tuckers' Hall (1471) is internallyan interesting medieval building; so, too, is the Law Library in the Close.

The underground passages of the city, which run beneath the main streets, are a remarkable feature of its topography. They can be explored for considerable lengths by the visitor, who is strongly recommended to do so. These passages were originally made to bring water into the walled city from outside, and are probably early medieval in date. There is no reason to believe that they are partly Roman. A detailed description of them is given in an official pamphlet entitled Exeter's Historic Underground Passages, obtainable from the City Information Bureau.

Though the city was heavily damaged in the air-raid of May 1942, several good examples of Tudor and Stuart domestic building survive in and near the centre, especially in the High Street. The city was once rich, too, in Georgian architecture. It was Georgian Exeter that suffered most in the air-raids, many beautiful terraces and crescents- most notably Bedford Circus-being smashed up; but Barnfield Crescent, Southernhay West, and Colleton Crescent survive for contemplation. Regency architecture is best seen in Pennsylvania Park and Crescent, and in and around St. Leonard's Road. Scattered about the city are many individual buildings of great distinction, among them the Custom House on the Quay (1678-81), Rougemont House (c. 1820) in the bailey of the Norman castle, and Bellair, on the Topsham Road, a small house of the Wren period.

Before the Germans wrecked it, Exeter was one of the most beautiful and appealing cities in England, full of colour, light, and movement. Even now, for all its ruins, it has an appeal unlike that of any other town in Western England. Exeter is the mother city and the tribal capital still.