Hayman’s engraving of the interior of Eastgate
Back to Time PeriodHayman's pair of engravings (one of the exterior, the other the interior) is the most reliable guide to the form of the old Eastgate. This had been completely rebuilt in 1511-13 following serious damage in the siege of Exeter of 1497 by the pretender Perkin Warbeck. As Dr Mark Stoyle has shown, the reason it was rebuilt was worry about war with France.
It was demolished in the 1780s; this view shows clearly how restrictive the old gates must have been to traffic.
Acknowledgments: RAM Museum