Exeter's fame rests on its cathedral, its Roman walls and its role as the capital of the south-west. This tour belongs to the people those monuments required: the wool-workers whose trade made the city the third richest in England, the engineer who cut Britain's first pound-lock canal, the plasterer who decorated the Custom House ceiling, the masons who carved the Cathedral's longest medieval vault, the tunnel-diggers who plumbed the city's water supply through the rock, the Guildhall beadles who kept order for eight centuries, and the wardens who pulled people from the rubble when the Baedeker bombers came. They built the city; it rarely put their names on the plaques.
Exeter Historic GuildhallThe oldest municipal building in continuous use in England, with origins in the civic record from the 12th century, a great hall roofed in 1467–69, and an elaborately carved oak door made by local carpenter Nicholas Baggett in 1593. The Guildhall has been the seat of Exeter's mayors, aldermen, quarter sessions and civic ritual without interruption for over eight centuries.
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Exeter CastleThe remnant of Exeter's Norman castle, built by William the Conqueror in 1068 on the natural volcanic mound of Rougemont. The gatehouse arch — one of the oldest Norman arches in England — is the work of the garrison-builders who quarried the purple volcanic trap from the very mound they were building on. In 1643, Royalist forces under Sir John Berkeley besieged the city for sixteen days before Exeter capitulated on 4 September. The castle later served as Devon's county court and assize hall.
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Northernhay GardensThe best-surviving stretch of Exeter's Roman and medieval city wall, running along the north side of the former legionary fortress of Isca Dumnoniorum. The lower courses are 2nd-century Roman facework in purple volcanic trap quarried from Rougemont; the upper sections were patched in the medieval period with red Heavitree breccia from the quarry outside the east gate. Northernhay Gardens, laid out in 1612, are England's oldest public urban park.
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Royal Albert Memorial MuseumMuseum in Exeter, Devon, England
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St Nicholas PrioryThe oldest surviving residential building in Exeter, founded as a Benedictine priory in 1087 by monks sent from Battle Abbey after William the Conqueror gave them the church of St Olave. The domestic buildings survived the Dissolution intact; between the 16th and 17th centuries the west range served as an Elizabethan town house. Now a museum managed by Exeter Historic Buildings Trust.
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Tuckers HallThe hall of the Incorporation of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen, built in 1471 on a plot given by William and Cecilia Bowden. The wool trade regulated from this hall once employed — by some estimates — up to 80 per cent of Exeter's workforce and made the city the third richest in England. The guild obtained its Royal Charter from King James I in 1620. Tucker's Hall is the only medieval guild hall in the south-west still owned and used by its original guild, which now operates as a charitable trust.
