West Country Households: Town Walk (Friday 14th September 2007)
41-42 High Street
Built as a pair in 1564, Nos 41-2 High Street typified the new form of house of the 16th century. They were of mixed construction, with stone side walls containing fireplaces, ovens, etc, and jettied timber frames to the front and rear. Each was only one room wide, with a front and back room on each floor. A spiral stair ran up through the centre of each building. To the rear was a cramped courtyard, behind which lay a detached kitchen. barber-pole ornament), and small carved figures, is shown in this coloured early 20th-century drawing by Endacott. The interior of the house will be viewed by arrangement with the present
occupiers, Thornton's Chocolates ljlljljljljljljljljlj.
46-47 High Street
No. 46 High Street and the adjacent property, No. 47, were built as a pair and probably date to c. 1520-50. They illustrate the introduction of a new type of house into the city, in which all the rooms were one storey high, contrasting with the tall halls rising from ground to roof in the medieval houses of previous generations. The ornate and well-carpentered timber-framed frontage with its coving (out-curving timber, here carved with barber-pole ornament), and small carved figures, is shown in this coloured early 20th-century drawing by Endacott. The interior of the house will be viewed by arrangement with the present
occupiers, Thornton's Chocolates.
Section through 41-42 High Street
The measured section, drawn by John Thorp of Exeter Archaeology during repairs in 1980, shows its arrangement of rooms, with cellar below, shop on the ground floor, forehall on the first floor, chambers on the second and cocklofts above. To the rear of the house (right) are a courtyard and kitchen, formerly connected by a gallery.
Reconstruction of 46-47 High Street
The reconstruction shows the initial form of these two houses as understood in the late 1980s, following study by Exeter Archaeology. Both houses were two rooms deep, lit by rows of windows on the street frontage and rear courtyard. On the ground floor each had a shop at the front, with workshop space behind. The best rooms were on the first floor, especially the front room ('fore hall') with its fine row of windows. Above were chambers. The form of the separate kitchen range at the back of the property is not firmly known. Here it is shown as if built like the front block of the house.
Three Gables, Cathedral Yard
Built on ground which had been part of the cathedral cemetery, Three Gables in Cathedral Yard illustrate a key feature of the the changes in housing in 17th-century: encroachment onto vacant land.
The houses reflect the mix of light timber framing, brick and plaster which is typical of mid- and late 17th-century houses in the city.
The etching was made by Miss F.M. Hayman in 1929.
Simon Snows's House
The house which now forms 223-5 High Street, with its elaborate timber-framed front, appears to be the one built in the 1650s by the rich merchant Simon Snow, who benefited from the acquisition of building materials from dismantled houses of the cathedral clergy. Although the ground floor is entirely lost and the gables have been rebuilt, the richly-carved first and second storeys, with many windows and black-and-white plasterwork panels, are an important survival.
Part of the Elizabethan plaster ceiling at St Nicholas Priory
This ceiling at St Nicholas Priory, with its ribs forming simple geometric patterns, interspersed with sprays of foliage, is perhaps the finest example of 16C plasterwork surviving in Exeter. It dates to c. 1580, when the Priory was occupied by one of the city's leading citizens.
Elizabethan Wall Painting in St Nicholas Priory
This wall painting from the reveal of a window in the hall of St Nicholas Priory, painted in black and white plaster, dates to about 1580. It shows grotesques, cherubs playing horns, etc., and may have been drawn with the use of stencils.
Houses in North Street
North Street, formerly occupied by substantial houses, some with elaborate fronts, offers a group of important buildings, now concealed behind modern brick fronts. They include the best example left in central Exeter of a classic SW English 'gallery-and-back block' house, in which the main block stood on the street frontage, with a courtyard behind, at the rear of which was a kitchen, connected to the house by a gallery. The engraving, published in The Illustrated London News in 1869, shows the elaborate timber-framed façades of 19 and 20 North Street. Reset fragments of these survive.
Reconstruction view of Cricklepit Mill in the 1750s
Towards the end of the tour we will visit the industrial area of Cricklepit, which has been the focus of much archaeological work since the 1980s. Two important buildings survive here, both alas damaged:
(1) Cricklepit Mill- a large late 17C cornmill to whose back was attached a lean-to structure in which fulling stocks operated
(2) The Dryhouse, c.?1700, an originally open-sided shed for the drying of cloth. We have arranged to examine the interior.
This reconstruction view, drawn by Richard Parker of Exeter Archaeology, shows the appearance of the area in the 1750s, based on the evidence of surviving buildings, the detailed Map Book of the Chamber of the City, and later topographical views. It looks down from within the walled city. Leats (water channels) flow across this low-lying area, driving the waterwheels of Cricklepit Mill (right) and Lower Mills (left).The Dryhouse is at the top of the view
Customs House Ceilings
In 1680-1 John Abbott, the north Devon plasterer, was commissioned by the city to provide ceilings for the new Custom House. This ceiling in the Surveyor's Room illustrates the delicate and refined style of work achieved by Abbott in his later life.
Recent study by the conservation architect Mike Baidwin, matching the moulds used in the ceiling against those in contemporary ceilings elsewhere, has shown that several of most celebrated West Country ceilings of the late 17th century, including those at Youlston Park and the Royal Hotel, Bideford, were also made by Abbott's practice.
