Stoyle - Water in the City : the Aqueducts and Underground Passages of Exeter

WATER IN THE CITY

The network of underground passages which snakes its way beneath the city of Exeter is a unique historic monument: a system of subterranean aqueduct tunnels which still stands as vivid testament to the skill and ingenuity of the medieval craftsmen who built it, and which cannot be paralleled anywhere else in Britain. Water in the City provides a richly illustrated history of Exeters famous underground passagesand of Exeters highly sophisticated system of public water supply during the medieval and early modern periods.

The books reliance on both documentary and material evidence ensures a solid foundation of scholarship, while its ability to tell such an interesting tale of urban technology in terms of its impact on humans will appeal to a large audience at home and abroad.

Maryanne Kowaleski, Professor of History at Fordham University, New York

Professor Stoyles important new study of the water supply of Exeter offers the fullest account of the development of such provision in any town in Britain, charting the construction of a steadily more complex system of piped water supplies from its origins in the late twelfth century to the early nineteenth. Written in an accessible and vivid style and handsomely illustrated, the study will be equally enjoyable to the specialist and the general reader.

John Allan, Exeter Cathedral Archaeologist

This unusual book is a very fine piece of scholarship that is also extremely clear, interesting, and easy to read.

Martha Carlin, Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Mark Stoyle is Professor of early modern History at the University of Southampton

THE AQUEDUCTS AND UNDERGROUND PASSAGES OF EXETER

Mark Stoyle

UNIVERSITY of EXETER PRESS

First published in 2014 by University of Exeter Press

Reed Hall, Streatham Drive

Exeter EX4 4QR

UK

www.exeterpress.co.uk

2014 Mark Stoyle

The right of Mark Stoyle to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 85989 877 5

Typeset in 11.5pt Baskerville by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster

Printed in Great Britain by Short Run Press Ltd, Exeter

This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Freddie Stoyle, formerly of Foggintor, Dartmoor

19132009

Shall I search the under-ground, Where all Damps, and Mists are found?

Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1648).

Maps

1. Exeters aqueducts in c.1200
2. Exeters aqueducts in c. 1270
3. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1350
4. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1400
5. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1430
6. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1450
7. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1502
8. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1570
9. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1700
10. Exeters aqueducts and underground passages in 1836

All maps drawn by T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

Figures

1. The entrance to the underground passages, 2011

   Photograph: G. Young, Exeter Archaeology

2. Well Street in 2011

   Photographs: G. Young, Exeter Archaeology

3. Exeter in c.1300

   Drawn by T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

4. Reconstruction of St Nicholas Priory

   Drawn by R. Parker, Exeter Archaeology

5. Map of Exeter dated 1618

   Courtesy of the RAM Museum, Exeter

6. The water supply in early medieval tenements

   Exeter Archaeology

7. Plan of the Underground Passages, 1931

   Courtesy of the Devon Archaeological Society

8. The area around East Gate before and after the Blitz

   Photographs by Airpic

9. Survey work in the underground passages, c.1990

   Exeter Archaeology

10. Fragments of marble from the lavatorium at St Nicholas Priory

    Photographs: D. Garner

11. Reconstruction of the lavatorium at St Nicholas Priory, c.1180

    Drawing by R. Parker, Exeter Archaeology

12. St Sidwells well

    Courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral and the Devon Record Office

13. St Sidwell, from the great east window of Exeter cathedral, c.1391

    Photograph: C. Brooks

14. Archaeological excavations at King William Street, 1983

    Exeter Archaeology

15. Archaeological excavations near the eastern angle tower, 200506

    Exeter Archaeology

16. Map showing the course of the first cathedral aqueduct

    Prepared by J. Allan/T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

17. The point of entry of the first cathedral aqueduct

    Photographs: G. Young. Courtesy of the RAM Museum and Exeter Guildhall

18. Views of St Peters fountain

    Courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral and the Devon Record Office

19. The location of the original Black Friars conduit-head

    Courtesy of the Devon Record Office and Her Majestys Stationery Office

20. The chamber built to carry the pipe of the thirteenth-century Black Friars aqueduct through the city wall

    Sketch: A.W. Everett. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

21. Reconstruction of the probable course of the thirteenth-century aqueduct passing through the city defences

    Prepared by J. Allan/T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

22. The Exeter cathedral fabric roll and the west front of the cathedral

    Photographs: G. Young. Courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral

23. Section of the cathedral conduit-house at Headwell

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral

24. The course of the fourteenth-century cathedral aqueduct between Headwell and Longbrook Street

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

25. Plan of the fourteenth-century cathedral aqueduct passing through the city walls

    Map drawn by T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

26. Views of the fourteenth-century cathedral passage

    Photograph: G. Young, Exeter Archaeology

27. The fourteenth-century cathedral passage

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Archaeological Society

28. The original man-hole in the garden of St Johns Hospital

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Archaeological Society

29. The vaulted section of the fourteenth-century cathedral passage

    Photographs: G. Young, Exeter Archaeology

30. Possible suspiral shafts incorporated in the fourteenth-century cathedral passage

    Photographs: G. Young. Elevation prepared by Exeter Archaeology

31. The location of the main city and cathedral conduit-heads, 1836

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

32. The adit supplying the city conduit-head at Cake Lane well, 1785

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

33. The fifteenth-century city conduit-head at Cake Lane well, 1836

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

34. Longbrook Street, 2011

    Photograph: G. Young. Exeter Archaeology

35. St Stephens church, early 2000s

    Photograph: D. Garner, Exeter Archaeology

36. The pipeline from the higher well to Cake Lane well, 1836

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

37. Possible suspiral shaft at the summit of the city aqueduct, 1836

    Photograph: G. Young. Courtesy of the Devon Record Office

38. Reconstructed section and plan of the pipe-bridge carrying the fifteenth-century city aqueduct

    Drawn by T. Ives, Exeter Archaeology

39. The chamber built to carry the pipe of the fifteenth-century city aqueduct through the outer abutment of East Gate-bridge