Churches, Cemeteries, and the Catacomb

A walk around Exeter
Led by Redcoat Guide Mike Richards
on Thursday, 11 July 2024
starting at 2pm from the West Front of the Cathedral

A group of 18 members and friends assembled at the West Front of the Cathedral, on what turned out to be a pleasantly warm and mainly sunny day.

We were greeted by Mike, who assured us that the event was very informal, and he encouraged us to ask questions as they arose.

Mike set the scene by recapping some of the Roman history of the Cathedral Green where we were standing. In the occupation of Britain by the Romans, the 2nd Legion Augusta, led by Vespasian, occupied Exeter, which they named Isca Dumnoniorum. They had met no local resistance here!

After about 20 years of being stationed in Exeter, the legion moved to Caerleon (near Chepstow), in Wales, to subdue an uprising. Exeter ceased to be a garrison town, but still thrived, with its grand bathhouse under Cathedral Green (found during Excavation works) and townhouses. The foundations of a townhouse have been found under the Cathedral Cloisters.

After the Romans left Britain, Christianity increased, and burial, rather than cremation became the established practice.

The current cathedral was a Norman construction, Romanesque in style, though nowadays only the two Norman towers remain. St. Nicholas Priory was also commissioned by William I in 1087, to stamp his mark on Exeter where Gytha, the mother of his defeated rival, (King Harold II) had lived. Subsequent bishops changed the cathedral building substantially, moving to English Decorated style.

In the medieval period (1066-1485) Exeter was a walled city and had 30 parishes, none of which had a graveyard. The cathedral was the only area where burials were permitted, and the Cathedral gained from the fees. Mike said that many thousands of bodies were buried under Cathedral Green and that bodies were buried up to 6 deep. This led to problems, with the ground level consequently rising almost to the windowsills of the Cathedral. The poor were buried under the Green, the important people were buried under the floor of the cathedral, and the very rich were buried in Chantry Chapels. The atmosphere became unpleasant (the term was coined – stinking rich).

Mike paused to tell us the story of the Grandisson chapel, the small window of which is visible on the West Front. During the Reformation, the cathedral was not a major target, as it was a secular establishment rather than a monastic one. At this time, however, the Grandisson Chapel was broken into, and Bishop Grandisson’s bones were scattered, and anything of value was stolen. Interestingly, when the chapel was opened up in the 1950’s, and cleared, Grandisson’s golden ring, with the Madonna and Child on it, was found behind a wooden post! Presumably, the thieves dropped it, and it rolled away! The ring can still be seen in the cathedral library.

We left Cathedral Yard and walked through to High Street (between Pizza Express and The Ivy) which was the site of the old Broad Gate, now no more. Mike recounted the story of the notorious murder of the Cathedral Precentor (Walter de Lechlade) in 1283. He was set on and beaten to death near the old Chantry, now part of the Cathedral School. There had been bad feelings between the City Guilds and the Cathedral. Following his death, 21 people including the Dean, John Pycot, (who was in league with the City’s Mayor, Alured de Porta), were ultimately charged with involvement in the conspiracy. King Edward I himself came to oversee the trial which took place in the Great Hall of Exeter Castle during December 1285. Five men were executed, including the Mayor. The Dean and other churchmen were tried in the Church courts and escaped the death penalty.

Originally there were thirty churches in central Exeter, of which seven remain, plus the Cathedral. St. Martin’s church is the oldest, being pre-medieval, and consecrated in 1065. The other city parish churches that remain are St. Olave’s, St. Pancras, St. Stephen’s. St. Mary Arches and St. Mary Steps were just outside the parish. The eleventh-century St. Petroc’s Church formed one of the gates and was the gateway for the important citizens.

St. Olave’s Church

The original church was Gytha’s private chapel dedicated in 1050. Subsequently, it has been used by Huguenot refugees, as a schoolroom, and was also preached in by John Wesley – there is a drop leaf table there, reputed to have been stood on by Wesley, so that the large crowds could see him preach.

Having explored the delightful interior of St. Olave’s, we walked on to St. Nicholas Priory – founded in 1087 by William the Conqueror on land previously owned by Gytha. It was an impressive Benedictine monastery and church, and the monks did a lot to help the poor. Its dissolution under Henry VIII was much resented by local people. All that now remains is the Northern and Western range of the buildings, which became Tudor houses, before becoming tenements. The remnants were eventually saved and are now owned by the Exeter Historic Buildings Trust. The Mint church is close to the Priory, and Mike told us that it is reputed to have been built on the site of Exeter’s Mint, which melted silver down to make coins to pay soldiers in the Civil War.

The Catacomb

Our walk then continued to the Catacomb. Mike set the scene by telling us that Exeter had been forced to establish new burial grounds, as the cathedral burial site was positively overflowing, and this was becoming a major problem. In 1636, the cathedral and civic authorities decided to allocate Friernhay as a new burial ground. It was consecrated by Bishop Hall in 1637 and was known thereafter as Bartholomew’s Yard. This remained the principal burial ground, but in 1664 a second burial ground was established in Southernhay, which relieved the pressure a bit. Other small independent graveyards sprang up including the Jewish cemetery and the Dissenters graveyard. However the cholera epidemic of 1832 put an intolerable strain on the capacity of Bartholomew's Yard, and a corner of Bury Meadow was used for a mass grave. The Improvement Commission then employed Thomas Whitaker to design a lower cemetery and catacomb to be built below Bartholomew's Yard in 1832.

Having walked through Lower Cemetery and up the slope to the Catacomb, Mike informed us that, should there be bat activity, the visit to the Catacomb would not be able to proceed. Luckily for us there was no sign of the bats!

Mike explained the rationale for the construction of the Catacomb. It was modelled on the Egyptian style, which was fashionable at the time. The idea was that wealthier citizens could choose to have a more refined interment, away from the common people. There was also a fear of grave robbers in the community. Medical students needed to practise their skills on cadavers, and it was not legal for them to do so, except for the bodies of felons, so grave robbing was rife. A surgeon was discovered in Sidwell Street, dissecting the body of one Elizabeth Taylor, to demonstrate anatomy to his students. He was fined £200, but his fine was paid by a public collection! So, for a variety of reasons, the Catacomb came into existence. However, it was never popular, and just as it was completed, in 1832 the law was changed, allowing people to legally leave their bodies for research! So, in the end, only 15 people chose to be buried there, and the Catacomb fell into disuse. It is now a Grade 2 listed monument.

The Catacomb itself is a fascinating building. We entered through padlocked double iron gates (opened by Mike). It consists of a long arched central passage with vaulted recesses opening on either side and is pretty dark. Mike had advised us to bring torches, and they were very useful. The recesses were originally intended to be divided into enlarged honeycombs, but only one was in fact adapted. In each cell there are two holes in the roof, which enabled coffins to be lowered into the Catacomb from street level. These were sealed with a stone slab, engraved with the details of the departed.

Religion determined the place of interment, for Anglicans were buried to the right of the AllHallows Gate, and other denominations to the left. Bishop Phillpotts would only consecrate the part used for Anglican interments. In total there are 12 burials to the right, and 3 Non-conformist burials to the left. A recess on the right of the gate was used to burn the clothes of cholera victims in the plague of 1832. The Catacomb was used as a mortuary following the Theatre Royal fire in 1887, when 200 people perished. As recently as 2009 Exeter City Council proposed that the Catacomb could be used to store bodies if swine flu took a large toll.

The Catacomb is securely locked these days. This was not always the case, and Mike recounted the story of some vandals who had broken into the catacomb and managed to get into one of the vaults, sliding out the coffin and making off with the skeletal remains. The police decided to release a statement announcing that whoever had stolen the skeleton was in danger of dying of cholera. The story was not true as the cholera epidemic was over before the catacomb was opened. The two terrified thieves apparently turned up at Heavitree police station carrying the skeleton. There are other stories circulating, but our visit to the Catacomb was very interesting, and the interior was less spooky than some people had expected.

Back out in the fresh air and daylight we had a short opportunity to see some other gravestones in the Bartholomew Street cemetery. Among the burials in the Lower cemetery are the graves of organist and composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley 1810-1876 (see left) who has a memorial in the Cathedral. There is also a gravestone of artist John Gendell.

With thanks to Mike Richards for a most enjoyable and informative walk.

Photographs by Judith Hosking.