2017
| 20/01/2017 | Belmont Park & the Orthodox Chapel | / walk |
| 09/02/2017 | History of the YMCA | / talk by Sam Rainbow |
| 09/03/2017 | Exwick's lost industrial history | / walk with Malcolm Grigorey |
| 13/04/2017 | Exeter’s First World War Hospitals | / talk by Dr Julia Neville |
| 17/04/2017 | Visit to Milbrook Village | / visit |
| 10/05/2017 | Guided private tour of Tiverton Castle with the owner | / walk with Alison Gordon |
| 08/06/2017 | Exeter’s Medieval Bakers | / talk by Dr Kate Osborne |
| 13/07/2017 | Exeter University Gardens | / walk with Malcolm Grigorey |
| 10/08/2017 | History of Exeter Through Its Maps | / talk by Dr Todd Gray and Chris Reed of Freeline Graphics |
| 14/09/2017 | St Luke's Campus | / visit with Malcolm Grigorey |
| 19/09/2017 | Stories of Exeter's War Hospitals | / visit with Dr Julia Neville |
| 11/10/2017 | Deller's of Bedford Street | / talk by Ed Williams-Hawkes |
| 09/11/2017 | Guided tour Poltimore House & gardens | / visit |
| 11/12/2017 | Christmas Quiz | / talk by Robert Hesketh |
Belmont Park & the Orthodox Chapel
on Friday, 20 January 2017
It’s easy to think how kind the Victorians were to provide public parks for the people. But in fact they were just dead worried about the epidemics occurring amongst the poor and the violence. The French Revolution was still strong in their memory.
History of the YMCA
on Thursday, 09 February 2017
Born in Kenton on 5th August 1788 John Dinham was, at the age of fourteen, apprenticed to a grocer on Exeter High Street. Then in 1809 he opened a Jeweller and Silversmith shop but went bankrupt, the victim of unscrupulous travelling salesmen who purchased his goods, sold them on at significant profits and then left the country without settling their accounts with him.
Exwick's lost industrial history
on Thursday, 09 March 2017
Exwick is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, spelt “Essoic”. A Mr Baldwin had 5 serfs, 9 villeins and “A MILL”. Ever since mills have been of enormous importance to the village of Exwick.
On a gloriously sunny day we visited Exwick, starting with the one mill still in existence. An ancient mill, called Banfill’s Higher Woollen Mill, was demolished to make way for this one, built in 1886.
Exeter’s First World War Hospitals
on Thursday, 13 April 2017
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
Exeter's First World War Red Cross Hospitals were amongst the earliest to be commissioned by the War Office after war broke out. Buildings all around Exeter were converted into hospitals by the end of August. They took their first patients in early October and by Christmas 1914 they provided more Red Cross beds than any other provincial town in Britain. This was a lead they maintained, under their redoubtable administrator Georgiana Buller, the only woman to keep her post as Administrator, in defiance of military protocol, under the War Office takeover of large Red Cross hospitals in 1916.
Visit to Milbrook Village
on Monday, 17 April 2017
Some of us remembered that back in 2014, Dr Salvatore gave the Society a talk about the archaeological discoveries made at the Millbrook site. The land is midway between Exeter and the port of Topsham and straddled the connecting road Goods could be offloaded at Topsham for storage at what is now the Millbrook site.
Guided private tour of Tiverton Castle with the owner
on Wednesday, 10 May 2017
We were truly lucky in the gloriously sunny weather but even luckier with the excellence of our guide. Alison Gordon took us first around the beautiful gardens while entertaining us with the most informative, interesting – and amusing – descriptions.
Exeter’s Medieval Bakers
on Thursday, 08 June 2017
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
Exeter's Elizabethan bakers produced the staple food that everyone depended on, whether wealthy merchant or poor relief recipients. Dr Kate Osborne has created individual biographies for over 70 Tudor bakers from local archival sources and she described their daily lives, family connections, homes and family businesses. She also explored the issues that affected their busy working lives.
Exeter University Gardens
on Thursday, 13 July 2017
The University Campus is a registered Botanic Garden and is home to a variety of rare species of plants and trees. The site covers an area of 141 Hectares and, until recent cutbacks, there were usually forty groundstaff to look after it all year round. Last Year we visited the Streatham Campus botanic garden with its pond and trees and the site of its old Glass Houses. The well-known Veitch family were responsible for the trees and shrubs layout in the 19th century.
History of Exeter Through Its Maps
on Thursday, 10 August 2017
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
Dr Todd Gray and Chris Reed of Freeline Graphics showed us and talked about maps covering a period from 1587 to the insurance maps of the 1930s. A wonderful skim through the history of Exeter over nearly 400 years.
St Luke's Campus
on Thursday, 14 September 2017
The Teacher Training College dates back to 1839 when it opened in Cathedral Close and was dedicated to St Luke by the then Bishop of Exeter. At the start it had 19 students, all men, training as school masters for work in church-run schools within the cathedral’s influence. A small “practice school” was also built in Heavitree, for the college students to improve their teaching skills.
Stories of Exeter's War Hospitals
on Tuesday, 19 September 2017
An exhibition held at St Stephens Church in Exeter High Street, 19-23 September 2017
Deller's of Bedford Street
on Wednesday, 11 October 2017
at Jurys Inn, Exeter
Ed Williams-Hawkes talked to us about the famous and sumptuous Deller's of Bedford Street which was so sadly destroyed in the Blitz. He showed us a selection of slides showing Deller's in its heyday – part of the remarkable collection which he and his colleagues have worked so tirelessly to amass.
Guided tour Poltimore House & gardens
on Thursday, 09 November 2017
On Thursday, 9 November, twenty two of us assembled at Poltimore House for our tour. It started, delightfully, with a delicious slice of home-made cake and a cuppa and then our excellent guide, Rikki, gave us a run down on the Bampfylde family which had occupied the land since the 1300s.
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