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Exeter Local History Society provides between six and twelve lectures every year on a wide variety of subjects. The descriptions of the most recent events can be found below. To see information about previous years, please use the search box above or select a year from the Society's history:
11/01/2024 | Martha’s Memories: The Later History of St. Nicholas Priory | / talk by Ben Clapp |
08/02/2024 | The Magic Lantern: Views of the local, views of the far away | / talk by Dr Richard Crangle |
14/03/2024 | Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743 | / talk by Tony Gale |
11/04/2024 | Bedless and Lifeless: The History of The Devon and Exeter Hospital | / talk by Richard Holladay |
09/05/2024 | Meeting the promise of ‘Homes for Heroes’ in Exeter after the First World War | / talk by Dr. Julia Neville |
13/06/2024 | The Role of the Royal Mail Guard | / talk by Martin Horler |
11/07/2024 | Churches, Cemeteries, and the Catacomb | / walk with Mike Richards |
08/08/2024 | Exploring Exeter's links with the British Empire | / talk by Dr. Todd Gray |
12/09/2024 | The Exeter Book | / talk by Emma Laws |
10/10/2024 | Hoard Stories | / talk by Tom Cadbury |
Ian Maxted is a member of Exeter Civic Society’s Blue Plaques Team and was formerly Devon’s local studies librarian from 1977 to 2005.
He talked about the ways in which the City has remembered those who have made a significant contribution over the centuries and some of the issues involved in continuing this long tradition.
Although the Bronze Age was at least 3,000 years ago, we can still gain glimpses of these communities’ lives from the hoards of metalwork that they left behind. The vast majority of these hoards have been found by metal-detectorists and, over the last 30 years, the partnership between detectorists, traditional archaeologists and museum curators has been increasingly important in understanding Bronze Age life. In this talk, Tom Cadbury, Assistant Curator at RAMM, looked at what metalwork hoards can tell us about life in Bronze Age Devon.
The talk focused on two hoards, one found at Pinhoe, the other near Dawlish. The Pinhoe hoard was one of the earliest found by detectorists and has been on display at RAMM since its discovery. It even has a pub named after it! The Dawlish hoard was found in 2017 and is the most interesting of the recent finds. Its mixture of gold and bronze objects is nationally unique and hints at a fascinating story behind its burial.
Tom Cadbury is Assistant Curator of Archaeology and Antiquities with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery.
Written around 970AD, the Exeter Book is the earliest of only four surviving books of Anglo-Saxon literature anywhere in the world. Much admired for its beautiful writing and the quality of its verse, this collection of poetry has been at Exeter Cathedral since Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter, gave it to his church in 1072. Within its pages are some 40 poems including The Wanderer and The Seafarer, and nearly 100 poetic riddles.
Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian, told the story of this extraordinary manuscript and what makes it special: its poetry, history and survival.
The planned talk on the history of the Dissenters' Graveyard had to be postponed. Instead, this Thursday, Dr. Todd Gray gave a talk on Exeter’s links with the British Empire.
Redcoat Guide, Mike Richards, told us about burial practices in Exeter from the time of the Romans to the present day. He talked about the spread of Christianity in the City, and the construction of many of our historic churches, including the Cathedral. The tour included stops at the Cathedral Green, St Petrock's Church, St Olaf's Church, and the Mint.
The walking tour ended with a visit to the interior of the 19th Century Catacomb, built at great expense at the time when “grave robbing” was rife and Exonians sought a safer place to bury their dead.
We are all familiar with the iconic image of the stage coach. It appears regularly on Christmas cards, a symbol of an Old England, of Pickwickian cheer.
Martin Horler presented his talk in full livery. He explored the postal system from 1784 to the coming of the railway in 1840. Among other things, he talked about the revolutionary introduction of Mail Coaches, which were provided by contractors, with regular changes of horses, keeping to a strict timetable, exempt from tolls and carrying an armed guard.
Martin brought to the talk the weapons provided to guard the mail and demonstrated the calls blown by the guard on a 51 inch coach horn.
Prime Minister Lloyd George’s promise of ‘Homes for Heroes’ in recognition of the sacrifices made by working men during the long years of the First World War is widely known — even if he never quite used those actual words! Exeter entered the 1920s as a city with considerable over-crowding and a city centre where many properties were dilapidated and ‘injurious to health’ and needed replacement. More homes — many more homes — were definitely required and the government acknowledged that was the case.
In this talk Dr Julia Neville, ELHS member and project manager for the Devon in the 1920s project, explored the efforts made by various parties in Exeter to keep that promise. The council — which had almost no pre-war experience of building council houses — did its best to create new ‘council estates’ against a backdrop of economic recession. Together with private builders and developers and with some help from social housing organizations like the Church Army Housing Society, they changed the landscape of Exeter, and much of what they built still exists today.
The Southernhay building had been the home of the Devon & Exeter Hospital, later the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, since the mid-18th century until 1974, when the RD&E was moved to Wonford. One of the largest hospitals in South West England, it had welcomed numerous patients from across the region and was a place of work and study for many healthcare professionals and professionals-in-training.
Some may well recall Southernhay as a busy institution but dated and verging on the inadequate. Few people, though, would ever have experienced it as an empty building or have explored even part of it from basement to attic. Our speaker, Richard Holladay did, with permission, in August 2009. As he recalls, he was searching for evidence of Garton & King's work in the early days of the Hospital and got sidetracked! In his talk, Richard shared his at times provoking memories and showed the images he took during his visits.
Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743 looks at two striking things which happened in Crediton that year. An unusually detailed map of the town was drawn up for the Lord of the Manor, and just a few months later, most of the town centre was destroyed by fire. There is a rich archive of contemporary documents about the fire and its aftermath. This talk covered the period before, during and after the fire, revealing some intriguing stories about life in 18th century Devon.
Tony Gale is a Devonian with a lifelong interest in history. Since retiring from paid work, he has taken an MA at the University of Exeter and is working with the Crediton Area History & Museum Society, Devon History Society, Devon & Cornwall Record Society to further his interest in and contribution towards local history.
The Magic Lantern has been used for more than 360 years to represent and feed into every aspect of human life and culture, in every part of the world. Yet today it is almost unknown or put aside as 'just' an ancestor of the cinema. Dr Richard Crangle explained a bit more, with an original 1890s lantern and slides, including some local views not often seen.
Richard Crangle has a PhD in early film and related media and has been researching magic lantern slides for over twenty-five years, with a particular focus on British commercial slide manufacture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His most recent post was as an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, working on the ‘Million Pictures’ European collaboration project researching the use of the projected image in educational and heritage contexts in several EU countries. Among other projects he has been largely responsible for creating and developing the Lucerna Magic Lantern Web Resource, lucerna.exeter.ac.uk.
St Nicholas Priory, Exeter's oldest building has had a long history, which has included its time as a monastery and many years as a grand Tudor home. However, its later history has many interesting stories to tell which bring the building to life. Ben Clapp has been involved with St. Nicholas Priory for some sixteen years and during his time being involved there, initially through his job at RAMM and now as a volunteer, he has studied this interesting but previously almost unknown period of the building's history. This has included the periods when it was used as a penny kitchen run by local nuns and when its parts were used as a school gym. This talk will explore the history of St Nicholas Priory in general and this period in particular, perhaps illuminating some of the things seen by our longest resident, Martha the (stuffed!) Raven who has watched the building for nearly a century.