2015
| 23/01/2015 | County Hall: Behind the Scenes | / visit |
| 12/02/2015 | Wynards Almshouses | / talk by AGM & Frances Allwright |
| 10/03/2015 | Buckland Abbey (to see the Rembrandt) & Tavistock Museum by coach | / visit |
| 16/04/2015 | Magical Beliefs & Practices in the West Country | / talk by Steve Paterson |
| 15/05/2015 | Cygnet Theatre: behind the scenes. Colleton Crescent etc | / visit |
| 11/06/2015 | Teign Valley Railway | / talk by Malcolm Grigorey |
| 10/07/2015 | Central Exeter: Architecture Above the Skyline | / walk with Malcolm Grigorey |
| 13/08/2015 | Pre-WW2 aerial photographs | / talk by David Cornforth |
| 12/09/2015 | Great Duryard reborn as the Steiner Academy | / visit |
| 08/10/2015 | History of Force & Sons | / talk by David Force |
| 14/11/2015 | The Mosque | / visit with Frances Allwright |
| 10/12/2015 | Industrial Life in Pre-War Exeter | / talk by Richard Holladay |
County Hall: Behind the Scenes
on Friday, 23 January 2015
On a bitterly cold day, our members started their visit with a look at the external architecture and its changes in style as building work progressed. Our attention was drawn to the unusually small specially-made bricks (we later learnt that the first builder went bankrupt because he had forgotten to quote for the extra mortar needed with such small bricks). The building was completed by others at a cost of £1.5 million, almost double the original estimate and it is today a remarkably artistic monument to the designer’s work.
Wynards Almshouses
on Thursday, 12 February 2015
These old and very beautiful buildings have a long history. Now privately owned, for many centuries they provided shelter for the Christian poor (who were fined if they missed Church!) though their managers/owners were often in trouble for not following the terms of the endowment.
Magical Beliefs & Practices in the West Country
on Thursday, 16 April 2015
at Exeter Library
Steve Patterson is a woodcarver and a folklorist whose main interests are the magical traditions of the West Country. Steve will be sharing some local accounts of witchcraft and magical practices and will also be looking at the development of our ideas of magic and witchcraft …and indeed the very ideas of folklore and history themselves.
Cygnet Theatre: behind the scenes. Colleton Crescent etc
on Friday, 15 May 2015
On Friday, 15 May, a few of us were lucky enough to see the only house in Colleton Crescent still in private family occupation. Kim showed us her wonderful ground floor dining room/morning room and upstairs a sitting room with breathtaking views over the river. She gave us a brief history of the house and its occupants, including a lady who bought a title and occupied the local and national press with her litigious nature! The Colletons were well off, having large American plantations – one can only presume it was slave money which built the Crescent.
Teign Valley Railway
on Thursday, 11 June 2015
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
A fascinating talk exploring the railway which carried goods and people to and from Exeter, the former for export around England and indeed the world, the latter to enjoy themselves and get the last train home (when the pubs closed). There are photographs taken fifty years ago of stations, bridges and engines which have since been destroyed (some by nature, some by man).
Central Exeter: Architecture Above the Skyline
on Friday, 10 July 2015
We met on Cathedral Green and, walking forward to the junction, gazed up at two items on the roof of Marks & Spencer: a statue and cupola, both removed when the original building was condemned as unsafe and had to be demolished in 1980. The statue of the young Queen Victoria was replaced in fibreglass, moulded from the original, and the whole, typically Georgian, side wall facing Queen Street was rebuilt from precast concrete sections moulded from the original design. The Cupola was remounted on the new corner structure.
Pre-WW2 aerial photographs
on Thursday, 13 August 2015
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
On 13th August 2015, David Cornforth showed us photographs from every walk of life - children "sledging" on the frozen river, the Tower Bridge look-alike over the river, a wingless plane being pushed along the road having landed in a cornfield and being unable to take off again from the long corn! Also the railway, canal and river, the site of what became Middlemoor, the Deaf School, Colleton Crescent, the Gas Works, the Cattle Market, the greyhound track and Speedway, and many many more.
Great Duryard reborn as the Steiner Academy
on Saturday, 12 September 2015
Members will remember the very sorry state of Great Duryard from our visit in May 2014. It was therefore a great joy for us to see what miracles had been performed to renovate it ready for use as a Steiner School this month. The gardens are still beautiful and the plethora of trees makes one feel one is out in the country. Just to walk around the grounds is a joy.
History of Force & Sons
on Thursday, 08 October 2015
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
On Thursday, 8 October 2015, Society members were delighted with a talk by David Force of Force & Son, Estate Agents. Here are a couple of anecdotes from his talk; full details of the talk are available by clicking Force & Son on the left column.
"...An ancestor, too crippled by arthritis and therefore unable to mount the horse-drawn trams which he favoured, paid a small boy to carry fo him a mounting stool. The boy was then expected to run along beside the tram to have the stool ready outside Force & Son to enable his employer to dismount. The boy then took the stool home and the process was repeated in reverse every evening!"
"...Force were also funeral directors but gave up the business after Arthur (David’s father) went to collect a corpse who had died sitting up. Attempts to straighten the body caused it to fall forward and wrap its arms round poor Arthur. After that they sold the business!
The Mosque
on Saturday, 14 November 2015
This 14 November event avoided the wet weather and the Christmas shopping crush by combining a visit to the Exeter Mosque with a slide-illustrated talk on the links between the West Country, including of course Exeter, and the Middle East.
Industrial Life in Pre-War Exeter
on Thursday, 10 December 2015
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
On Thursday, 10 December 2015, Richard Holladay explained that Exeter's city centre in the 60 years before 1940 has changed almost out of all recognition.
Through adverts of the period he showed us the familiar and the unfamiliar, and we saw how products were promoted and marketed – a far cry from the restrictions of the Trades Description Act that we have to abide by nowadays. And of course, we observed how the style and format of advertising have changed, not to mention the products.
With the help of over 50 images, Richard took us back to the inter-war years – and beyond. . . back into Victoria’s reign. . .
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