Transport in Exeter

Road

The M5 motorway to Bristol and Birmingham starts at Exeter, and connects at Bristol with the M4 to London. The older A30 road provides a shorter but sometimes slower route to London.

Going west, the A38 connects Exeter to Plymouth and South Cornwall, whilst the A30 continues to Okehampton and North Cornwall.

Rail

There are two main line railway routes from Exeter to London, the faster Great Western Main Line route via Taunton to London Paddington and the slower West of England Main Line via Salisbury to London Waterloo. Another main line, the Cross-Country Route, links Exeter with Bristol, Birmingham, the Midlands, Northern England, and Scotland. Many trains on all three lines continue westwards from Exeter, variously serving Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall.

Local branch lines run to Paignton (see Riviera Line), Exmouth (see Avocet Line) and Barnstaple (see Tarka Line). There is also a summer weekend service to Okehampton for access to Dartmoor.
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Notable Buildings in Exeter

Among the notable buildings in Exeter are:

The cathedral, founded in 1050 when the bishop’s seat was moved from the nearby town of Crediton (birthplace of Saint Boniface) because Exeter’s Roman walls offered better protection against “pirates", presumably Vikings. A statue[2] of Richard Hooker, the sixteenth century Anglican theologian, who was born in Exeter, has a prominent place in the Cathedral Close.

The ruins of Rougemont Castle, built soon after the Norman Conquest; later parts of the castle are still in use as an Assize court, though a new courts complex is under construction and the castle will probably become accessible to tourists as a result.

The Guildhall, the oldest municipal building in England still in use.

The Guild of Tuckers and Weavers, a fine old building that is still used for smart functions.
The Custom House in the attractive Quay area
St Nicholas Priory in Mint Lane.

A number of medieval churches including St Mary Steps which has an elaborate clock.
‘The House That Moved’, a 14th century Tudor building, earned its name in 1961 when it was moved from its original location on the corner of Edmund Street in order for a new road to be built in its place. Weighing more than twenty-one tonnes, it was strapped together and slowly moved a few inches at a time to its present day home.
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Politics and Administration

Exeter forms a single parliamentary constituency. It is relatively marginal, and since the second World War its Member of Parliament has usually been drawn from the governing party. At the United Kingdom general election, 1997, Ben Bradshaw was elected as MP for Exeter, and he retained the seat at the elections of 2001 and 2005.

Exeter’s city council is a district authority, and shares responsibility for local government with the Devon County Council. In recent years, the city council has been dominated by Labour Party and Liberal Democrat members. Since 2003, no party has had a majority on the council.

History of Exeter

The Latin name for Exeter, Isca Dumnoniorum ("Isca of the Dumnones"), suggests that the city was originally a Celtic oppidum, or town, on the banks on the River Exe prior to the foundation of the Roman city in c. AD 50. Such early towns, or proto-cities, had been a feature of pre-Roman Gaul as described by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico ("Commentaries on the Gallic Wars") and it is not improbable that they existed in neighbouring Britain as well. Isca is clearly a Celtic generic noun and the Romans felt the need to label the city Isca Dumnoniorum, or the Isca of the Dumnonii, in order to distinguish it from such settlements as Isca Silurum (modern Caerleon-on-Usk in Monmouthshire).

Isca Dumnoniorum was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in England. Significant parts of the Roman wall remain, though the present visible structure was largely built on the orders of Alfred the Great to protect the far west of his kingdom following the Viking occupation of 876. Most of its route can be traced on foot. There is a substantial Roman baths complex that was excavated in the 1970s.[1], but because of its proximity to the cathedral, it has not been practicable to retain the excavation for public view. Exeter was also the southern starting point for the Fosse Way Roman road.

In 876 Exeter was attacked and captured by the Danes. King Alfred drove them out the next year.

The city was again besieged by the Danes in 894 however they were not able to take the city, and soon abandoned the siege.

In 1067 the city rebelled against William the Conqueror who promptly marched West to besiege the city. The city submitted only after an 18-day siege. Part of the capitulation agreement was that all the nobles in the city would be confirmed in their positions as long as a castle was built.
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Economy of Exeter

The city provides strong industries and services to a sizable area. The Met Office, the main weather forecasting organisation for the United Kingdom and one of the most significant in the world, relocated from Bracknell in Berkshire to Exeter in early 2004. It is one of the three largest employers in the area (the others being the University of Exeter and Devon County Council), providing a welcome boost to the local economy.

On June 26, 2004, Exeter was granted Fairtrade City status.

In June 2005 it was singled out among towns with populations between 5,000 and 150,000 as the worst “clone town” in Great Britain. By “clone town” the New Economics Foundation meant “a place that has had the individuality of its high street shops replaced by a monochrome strip of global and national chains"; by the foundation’s metric Exeter is the town most easily “mistaken for dozens of other bland town centres across the country.

” Exeter’s High Street had only one independent shop at the time of the survey (a tobacconist), and the least varied selection of shop types, with “little more than clothing retailers, a few electronics shops and some stationery or bookstores” instead of the independence and diversity seen in towns such as Hebden Bridge, Peebles, and Lewes. Many local residents feel that this was a superficial judgement, and that the Foundation’s researchers seem not to have looked very hard; while Exeter’s independent shops do mostly eschew the High Street (a characterless example of quick post-war reconstruction following the 1942 bombing), there are plenty of them in the more interesting roads immediately connecting to it, as a recent survey by the Royal Town Planning Institute confirms.

Attractions of Exeter

Exeter is a city brimming with history and heritage and has a wealth of visitor attractions to keep you occupied and amused for hours on end. From the magnificent Cathedral and Historic Quayside, to the Guildhall and Royal Albert Memorial Museum there’s so much to see and do in this fascinating city.

St Peter’s Cathedral

There was a monastery in existence in Exeter by about 680

It was here that St Boniface, Apostle to the Germans, received his education. A later monastery founded by Athelstan served as the Cathedral from 1050 to 1133, following the transfer of the Bishop’s seat from the monastery at Crediton.

William Waelwast, the nephew of William the Conqueror, and the third Bishop of Exeter, was responsible for building a new Cathedral. Work began in 1114 and the Cathedral was consecrated in 1133. Only the pair of massive towers remains today. The late medieval rebuilding was started by Bishop Bronescombe in the 1270’s and completed by Bishop Grandisson in the 14th century.
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Facts About Exeter

Geography

Status: City
Region: South West England
Admin. County: Devon
Area: Ranked 303rd
- Total 47.03 km²
Admin. HQ: Exeter
ONS code: 18UC

Demographics

Population: Ranked 177th
- Total (2004 est.) 115,200
- Density 2,450 / km²
Ethnicity: 97.6% White

Politics

Leadership: Leader & Cabinet
Executive: All party
MP: Ben Bradshaw

Exeter

The gateway to England’s South-West, Exeter is the county capital of Devon, located 10 miles (16km) from the English Channel and 7 miles (11km) east of Dartmoor. Clotted cream, country casuals and waterside living. Scrumpy cider, Devon fudge, fresh fish and nicely brewed tea. Free guided tours of the 2,000-year-old city by Exeter’s know-it-all Red Coat guides. They meet daily in Cathedral Close or at the.

The most distinctive feature of Exeter’s skyline, St Peter’s Cathedral (Mon-Sat 8am-6.30pm, Sun 8am-7.30pm; £3 suggested donation; ), is a stately monument made conspicuous by the two great Norman towers flanking the nave. Close up, it is the facade’s ornate Gothic screen that commands attention: its three tiers of sculpted (and very weathered) figures - including Alfred, Athelstan, Canute, William the Conqueror and Richard II - were begun around 1360, part of a rebuilding programme which left only the Norman towers from the original construction.

The cathedral boasts the longest unbroken Gothic ceiling in the world, its bosses vividly painted - one, towards the west front, shows the murder of Thomas à Becket. The Lady Chapel and Chapter House - respectively at the far end of the building and off the right transept - are thirteenth-century, but the main part of the nave, including the lavish rib-vaulting, dates from the full flowering of the English Decorated style, a century later. There are many fine examples of sculpture from this period, including, in the minstrels’ gallery high up on the left side, angels playing musical instruments, and, below them, figures of Edward III and Queen Philippa.
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