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Timeline
Modern City
In 1900 Exeter still occupied about less than a third of the area of the modern built-up city. The growth has reflected a number of major social changes. Parts of the city centre, most famously the West Quarter, remained places of very serious poverty and disease until public housing schemes finally cleared them in the 1920s and 30s, building new estates on the outskirts of the city. Suburban growth, swallowing up the old villages of Alphington, Exwick, Whipton, Heavitree and Pinhoe, has followed.
Even after the First World War many of Exeter’s industries were still packed into the old decaying areas at the city centre, beside the river. Their removal, allied with industrial expansion, lay behind the creation of industrial estates at Marsh Barton and Sowton.
Another theme has been the renewal of the city centre. Following the extensive bomb damage of 1942 much of the city was rebuilt in fairly uniform post-war style. Major city centre projects followed in the 1970s and subsequently, some responding to the needs of modern shoppers, others among to make more attractive the remaining historic parts of the city.
St Mary Arches
The Guildhall: a modern view of the interior
Reconstruction view of the College of Vicars Choral
A view of the guest hall at St Nicholas Priory around 1900
The hall of the Vicars Choral
Bicorne mayoral hat
A token of the Coach and Horses Inn (obverse)
A token of the Coach and Horses Inn (reverse)
A 1½d check from Glade’s Black Dog Inn (reverse)
Bamfylde House
Shoes sold by Tucker and Glenn
Shoes sold by HT Squires
Cord from a parachute mine
The Chevalier Inn, Fore Street
The Bedford Chapel
Bedford Circus
The Higher Market
Aerial view of Exe Bridges
A 1½d check from Glade’s Black Dog Inn (obverse)
Besley’s bird’s–eye view of central Exeter, c1910
The Exe and St David’s in the 1920s
Countess Wear bridge
View of Exeter from Haldon
Damage to the cathedral
Exeter Cathedral and the Close in 1943
Bedford Circus after the Blitz
Thomas Sharp’s plan, 1946
Architect’s drawing of the new Dingle’s shop
Architect’s drawing for the Martin’s Bank
The Eastgate area under reconstruction
Princesshay in the 1990s
Blackboy Road in the 1960s
Architect’s model of the city centre in the 1970s
Filming ’The Onedin Line’ on Exeter Quay
Exeter City Plan, 1995–2011
Map from the Urban Archaeological Database
Kitchener’s army
German map of Exeter
An Anderson shelter
Civil Defence arm band
Fire Guard appointment card
Fire Guard appointment card
Fire Guard arm band
The Underground post
Model of the City Gasworks
An Exeter City Water stop–cock cover
Plan of the tram system
Tram lines exposed in Sidwell Street
A length of tram line
An Exeter tram ticket
A fireman’s badge
The interior of the museum
The Cathedral Close in the 1950s
Plan for the Burnthouse Lane estate
Plans for houses in Preston and Smythen Street
Plans for houses in the St Loye’s Estate, Wonford
A motor fuel ration book
A motor fuel ration book
Two Co–op tokens
Brass plaque of Willey and Co
Three stoneware flagons
Brickworks at Clifton Hill
Millennium Optimism by Peter Thursby
Boat repairs at Topsham
The canal
Model of Wonford Hospital
The Farthing Breakfast
Design for the ceiling of the chapel of the University of Exeter
Seal of Topsham
Cricklepit Mill in the 1980s
Codd bottles
St Luke’s campus of the University of Exeter
Bamfylde House, Exeter
The frozen Exe
Gandy Street from a window of the museum
Thomas Sharp’s view of Exeter from the North
Princesshay in the 1960s
A lamp from County Hall, Exeter
Items from Kennaway
Malting floor tiles
A Heavitree cooper
Photo of Bodley’s foundry
Engravings of machinery made at Bodley’s
A pattern from Bodley’s
Patterns from Bodley’s
Reconstruction of Cricklepit Mill
Head Weir Paper Mills
Strike–fund box from the Stoke Canon papermakers’ strike
The St Louis reredos
Port Royal, Exeter
Cadbury’s, Marsh Barton
Food for the poor: a Penny Dinner Society plate
Proposal for university college c1909
Court summons
Travel warrant
School hat badge
Hockey team badge
Ceremonial sash
Exeter Corporation Transport tram ticket
Invoice from Oliver Brothers
Invoice from Peters and Hamlin
Items from a Belgian battlefield
Invoice from James L Thomas and Co
Invoice from Kennaway and Co Ltd
Invoice from S Lendon and Sons
Deller’s cafe mug
Captain Bell’s service medals
Captain Bell’s medal
Tram timetable
Message from an Australian soldier
Message from a soldier
Rougemont House Historical museum
