2025
| 09/01/2025 | Through the traveller’s eye -- Journeys in the Southwest from diaries and prints | / talk by Dr Alan Rosevear |
| 01/02/2025 | Exeter History Book Festival | / event with Mark Stoyle, Todd Gray, John Alan, Richard Batten |
| 13/02/2025 | A Family Tale from Tudor Exeter to the Eastern Shore of Virginia: The Chappell and Bagwell Families | / talk by Margaret Rice |
| 13/03/2025 | What can a graveyard tell us about Georgian Exeter? | / talk by Dr Ian Varndell |
| 10/04/2025 | Exeter City Walls | / talk by Dr Stuart Blaylock |
Exeter City Walls
with Dr Stuart Blaylock on Thursday, 10 April 2025
at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter [Jurys Inn Exeter Hotel]
From the time of its first construction in the late 2nd century AD the city wall of Exeter has encircled the town and defined its historic core.
The talk offered a summary of research on the wall over the years:
- how the understanding of the defences, including ditches and ramparts, developed;
- how the identification of surviving original Roman work has ebbed and flowed; and
- the many different phases of repair and rebuilding that have made the wall the patchwork of Roman, Medieval and later masonry that we see today.
Dr Blaylock also talked about current issues of repair and maintenance, since the wall is probably under more of a threat today than at any time in the last century.
Our speaker, Dr Stuart Blaylock, is an independent scholar and archaeologist who has lived and worked in and around Exeter since 1978.
What can a graveyard tell us about Georgian Exeter?
with Dr Ian Varndell on Thursday, 13 March 2025
at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter [Jurys Inn Exeter Hotel]
A patch of land smaller than two tennis courts, located just outside Exeter’s city walls, became a burial ground for protestant dissenters for just over 100 years. Around 2,000 people were buried there before it closed in 1854.
Dr Ian Varndell talked to us about the origins of the site and the non-conformist congregations who paid for it; he described how and, more importantly, why it had been conserved.
A small group has been researching the lives of Exeter’s dissenting families, and Ian finished with stories of three Exonians who were buried in “Saints Rest” – giving us a glimpse into their lives more than two centuries ago.
The Dissenters Graveyard, Magdalen Street, is open for visits on Wednesdays and Saturdays 10.00-4.00.
Our speaker, Dr Ian Varndell, is a retired bioscientist and company director deeply interested in historic landscapes, including burial grounds.
A Family Tale from Tudor Exeter to the Eastern Shore of Virginia:
The Chappell and Bagwell Families
with Maggie Rice on Thursday, 13 February 2025
at 7pm at the Leonardo Hotel Exeter
William and Thomas Chappell and their cousin John were successful merchants and important civic personalities. Each would serve as Mayor of Exeter during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
This presentation focused on the family of Thomas and Thomazine, their personal lives in Tudor Exeter, and the story of their daughter, Johane, who married Thomas’s apprentice, David Bagwell. Their second son, Henry Bagwell, left England in 1609 with the supply fleet sent to Jamestown - England’s first permanent colony in the New World. He survived a shipwreck, having been marooned in Bermuda. He eventually reached Virginia in 1610.
Henry survived the early days of the colony and became a key member of the emerging society on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. In 1639 he was granted a patent of 400 acres, married, and had three children, as well as being a step-father of three children.
Our speaker, Margaret A. “Maggie” Rice, has enjoyed a long and successful career as a teacher and school administrator. She is the author of “Merchants and Mayors: the Chappell Family in Tudor Exeter” and “The Henry Bagwell Story: English Adventurer, Virginia Planter (1589-1663)”.
Exeter History Book Festival
A celebration of the recently published books on Exeter's history
on Saturday, 1 February 2025
at The Mint Methodist Church Centre
The Exeter History Book Festival celebrated the latest research on the history of Exeter. This was a one-day event and featured four of the foremost scholars of Devon’s history:
| 9.30 | Registration & coffee |
| 10.25 | Welcome |
| 10.30 | Prof. Mark Stoyle, "Witchcraft in Exeter, 1558-1660" |
| 11.30 | Dr Todd Gray, "Exeter's Waterwog & the Golliwogg" |
| 12.30 | Lunch |
| 13.30 | John Allan, "The Cloisters of Exeter Cathedral" |
| 14.30 | Dr Richard Batten, "A Loyal and Faithful City? Exeter during the Great War" |
“Through the Traveller’s Eye”
with Dr Alan Rosevear on Thursday, 9 January 2025
at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter [Jurys Inn Exeter Hotel]
This was an exploration of inland travel in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, based on travel diaries and contemporary illustrations. Through the personal diaries of men and women who journeyed across Southwest England, the talk addressed what modes of transport they chose, why they travelled and their experiences along the way. Their tales were illustrated with pictures made at the time and maps that plotted their itineraries.
Our speaker, Dr Alan Rosevear, is a retired research scientist with a life-long fascination with the history of roads and transportation.
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