Walk 5. South through Saint Leonard to Topsham.
The walks outside the walled city are not intended to be followed slavishly. The sites are scattered and often not worth the long trek to hunt them out, but may provide points of interest if you are in the area.
Trew's Weir Paper Mill.
The mill produced paper from 1834 to 1983 and is now converted into apartments.
Trews Weir paper mill, Exeter.
Devon County Library. Colleton Crescent.
The County Library, established in 1924, had its first headquarters at no. 8, which it shared with the electoral registration office, until it moved to 138 Cowick Street in 1931.
The first headquarters of Devon County Library
Bill West. Fairpark Road.
No. 36 was the family home of William John West (1942-1999), the writer on military intelloigence and propaganda, who rediscovered the wartime broadcasts of George Orwell. His polemic tract The strange rise of semi-literate England : the dissolution of the libraries which appeared in 1991 and charted the disposal of books by public and academic libraries meant that his visits to Exeter libraries were greeted with some trepidation.
The home of Bill West, Fairpark Roadm Exeter.
Harry Tapley-Soper. Wonford Road.
No. 44 (formerly 22) was from at least 1939 to 1945 the residence of Gwendoline E. Tapley-Soper, the wife of Exeter's city librarian and a poet and historian.
44 Wonford Road, home of the Tapley-Soper family
Beatrix Cresswell. Wonford Road.
No. 46 (formerly 23) was from 1905 until her death the home of the historian and writer of travel guides Beatrix Fedora Cresswell (1862-1940). Her most extensive work is the multivolume typescript account of every parish church in Devon arranged by deanery, which is held by the Westcountry Studies Library. Only the sections for Exeter and the deanery of Kenn made it into print.
The home of historian Beatrix Cresswell, Wonford Road, Exeter.
Sir John Bowring. Claremont Grove.
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872 known as 寶寧, 寶靈 in China) was born in Little Larkbeare which once stood opposite the 16th century Great Larkbeare House, 38 Holloway Street. He mastered 100 languages, publishing translations of poetry from Russian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Serbian and Hungarian. A convinced radical, he became the first editor of Jeremy Bentham's Westminster Review in 1824. He was on a commission to reform the parliamentary accounting system in the 1830s and described himself as an "unintentional incendiary" after the Palace of Westminster was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 during the burning of the wooden tally sticks which had been used for accounting by the Exchequer until 1826. He was MP for Bolton from 1841 to 1849, campaigning on a platform of free trade. A keen advocate of decimalisation, he introduced the florin, (the "two bob bit") one tenth of a pound, in 1849. He served as governor of Hong Kong from 1854 to 1859 and also served as diplomat with Siam and various European states. He was president of the Devon and Exeter Institution and a prime mover in establishing the Devonshire Association in the 1860s. Claremont Villa was built for him in Claremont Grove in the 1840s and it was his Exeter home until his death in 1872.
Sir John Bowring's residence, Claremont Grove, Exeter.
W. G. Hoskins. Lyndhurst Road.
The landscape historian W. G. Hoskins (1908-1992) lived at 2 Lyndhurst Road, Exeter. He could be seen leaning out of an upstairs window in the last programme of the BBC series "One man's England" praising his beloved Devon with the quote from Virgil's Aeneid "Hic amor, haec patria est" (this is my love, this is my native land).
The home of historian W. G. Hoskins, Lyndhurst Road, Exeter.
Rosemary Sutcliff. Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital
Only one wing remains of the hospital where the children's author Rosemary Sutcliff spent long periods being treated for Still's disease, a form of arthritis, in the early 1930s. Perhaps her most famous novel, The eagle of the Ninth, is partly set in Isca Dumnoniorum.
Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter.
Ethel Lega-Weekes. Topsham Road.
Varnello, at 133 Topsham Road was for many years the home of the historian Ethel Cleila Lega-Weekes (1864-1949). Of Italian ancestry, she spent her early years in America and the Westcountry Studies Library holds juvenilia from this period of her life. Her best known work is Studies in the topography of the Cathedral Close (1915). She also made many contributions to Devonshire Association Transactions and Devon and Cornwall notes and queries and championed the preservation of Polsloe Priory.
Varnello, the home of Ethel Lega-Weekes
Countess Wear Paper Mill. Mill Road.
The mill operated to manufacture paper from at least 1656 to 1885 and has an informative interpretation panel.
Countess Wear paper mill, Exeter.
Roman Military Site. Millbrook Village.
When the site of St Loyes was redeveloped a first century Roman military supply base was discovered and among the items unearthed as a wooden writing tablet with remains of lettering, one of the earliest inscriptions discovered in Isca.
Roman military site, St Loyes, Exeter.
Topsham Library. Nancy Potter Centre.
A recently opened community hub, the Nancy Potter Centre hosts the Topsham branch library.
Nancy Potter House, Topsham, with the library window.
The small local studies section includes the local parish packs of historical information distributed to libraries across Devon by the Westcountry Studies Library.
Topsham Library.
Matthew Hall. Fore Street, Topsham.
Mattthew Hall is the venue of the Provincial Booksellers' Fair several times a year, and a number of books are usually on display at the weekly market each Saturday.
Matthew Hall, Topsham.
Harry Tapley-Soper. Wixels, Ferry Road.
This converted sail loft was the home of Harry Tapley-Soper (1875-1931), Exeter's first professional librarian, who saw the library into its new home in 1931 only to see its collections destroyed in the 1942 bombings. He lived there from at least 1935. His wife Gwendoline was a poet and historian whose papers are held in the Devon Heritage Centre and the University of Exeter Special Collections.
Wixels, Topsham,
Topsham Bookshop. Fore Street, Topsham.
Exeter's largest antiquarian bookshop is located at 27 Fore Street, Topsham. It is owned and managed by Lily Neale. There has been a bookshop at this address, originally Joel Segal Books, since the middle of the 1990s. In its early days it shared premises with a music shop, Musisca. The current incarnation of the shop as The Topsham Bookshop dates from November 2011.
Topsham Bookshop is noted for its colourful window displays.
Topsham Museum. Strand, Topsham.
The Museum has extensive collections of documentation on the history of Topsham and the actress Vivien Leigh.
Topsham Museum (Google street view)
The walks outside the walled city are not intended to be followed slavishly. The sites are scattered and often not worth the long trek to hunt them out, but may provide points of interest if you are in the area.
Trew's Weir Paper Mill.
The mill produced paper from 1834 to 1983 and is now converted into apartments.
Trews Weir paper mill, Exeter.
Devon County Library. Colleton Crescent.
The County Library, established in 1924, had its first headquarters at no. 8, which it shared with the electoral registration office, until it moved to 138 Cowick Street in 1931.
The first headquarters of Devon County Library
Bill West. Fairpark Road.
No. 36 was the family home of William John West (1942-1999), the writer on military intelloigence and propaganda, who rediscovered the wartime broadcasts of George Orwell. His polemic tract The strange rise of semi-literate England : the dissolution of the libraries which appeared in 1991 and charted the disposal of books by public and academic libraries meant that his visits to Exeter libraries were greeted with some trepidation.
The home of Bill West, Fairpark Roadm Exeter.
Harry Tapley-Soper. Wonford Road.
No. 44 (formerly 22) was from at least 1939 to 1945 the residence of Gwendoline E. Tapley-Soper, the wife of Exeter's city librarian and a poet and historian.
44 Wonford Road, home of the Tapley-Soper family
Beatrix Cresswell. Wonford Road.
No. 46 (formerly 23) was from 1905 until her death the home of the historian and writer of travel guides Beatrix Fedora Cresswell (1862-1940). Her most extensive work is the multivolume typescript account of every parish church in Devon arranged by deanery, which is held by the Westcountry Studies Library. Only the sections for Exeter and the deanery of Kenn made it into print.
The home of historian Beatrix Cresswell, Wonford Road, Exeter.
Sir John Bowring. Claremont Grove.
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872 known as 寶寧, 寶靈 in China) was born in Little Larkbeare which once stood opposite the 16th century Great Larkbeare House, 38 Holloway Street. He mastered 100 languages, publishing translations of poetry from Russian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Serbian and Hungarian. A convinced radical, he became the first editor of Jeremy Bentham's Westminster Review in 1824. He was on a commission to reform the parliamentary accounting system in the 1830s and described himself as an "unintentional incendiary" after the Palace of Westminster was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 during the burning of the wooden tally sticks which had been used for accounting by the Exchequer until 1826. He was MP for Bolton from 1841 to 1849, campaigning on a platform of free trade. A keen advocate of decimalisation, he introduced the florin, (the "two bob bit") one tenth of a pound, in 1849. He served as governor of Hong Kong from 1854 to 1859 and also served as diplomat with Siam and various European states. He was president of the Devon and Exeter Institution and a prime mover in establishing the Devonshire Association in the 1860s. Claremont Villa was built for him in Claremont Grove in the 1840s and it was his Exeter home until his death in 1872.
Sir John Bowring's residence, Claremont Grove, Exeter.
W. G. Hoskins. Lyndhurst Road.
The landscape historian W. G. Hoskins (1908-1992) lived at 2 Lyndhurst Road, Exeter. He could be seen leaning out of an upstairs window in the last programme of the BBC series "One man's England" praising his beloved Devon with the quote from Virgil's Aeneid "Hic amor, haec patria est" (this is my love, this is my native land).
The home of historian W. G. Hoskins, Lyndhurst Road, Exeter.
Rosemary Sutcliff. Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital
Only one wing remains of the hospital where the children's author Rosemary Sutcliff spent long periods being treated for Still's disease, a form of arthritis, in the early 1930s. Perhaps her most famous novel, The eagle of the Ninth, is partly set in Isca Dumnoniorum.
Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter.
Ethel Lega-Weekes. Topsham Road.
Varnello, at 133 Topsham Road was for many years the home of the historian Ethel Cleila Lega-Weekes (1864-1949). Of Italian ancestry, she spent her early years in America and the Westcountry Studies Library holds juvenilia from this period of her life. Her best known work is Studies in the topography of the Cathedral Close (1915). She also made many contributions to Devonshire Association Transactions and Devon and Cornwall notes and queries and championed the preservation of Polsloe Priory.
Varnello, the home of Ethel Lega-Weekes
Countess Wear Paper Mill. Mill Road.
The mill operated to manufacture paper from at least 1656 to 1885 and has an informative interpretation panel.
Countess Wear paper mill, Exeter.
Roman Military Site. Millbrook Village.
When the site of St Loyes was redeveloped a first century Roman military supply base was discovered and among the items unearthed as a wooden writing tablet with remains of lettering, one of the earliest inscriptions discovered in Isca.
Roman military site, St Loyes, Exeter.
Topsham Library. Nancy Potter Centre.
A recently opened community hub, the Nancy Potter Centre hosts the Topsham branch library.
Nancy Potter House, Topsham, with the library window.
The small local studies section includes the local parish packs of historical information distributed to libraries across Devon by the Westcountry Studies Library.
Topsham Library.
Matthew Hall. Fore Street, Topsham.
Mattthew Hall is the venue of the Provincial Booksellers' Fair several times a year, and a number of books are usually on display at the weekly market each Saturday.
Matthew Hall, Topsham.
Harry Tapley-Soper. Wixels, Ferry Road.
This converted sail loft was the home of Harry Tapley-Soper (1875-1931), Exeter's first professional librarian, who saw the library into its new home in 1931 only to see its collections destroyed in the 1942 bombings. He lived there from at least 1935. His wife Gwendoline was a poet and historian whose papers are held in the Devon Heritage Centre and the University of Exeter Special Collections.
Wixels, Topsham,
Topsham Bookshop. Fore Street, Topsham.
Exeter's largest antiquarian bookshop is located at 27 Fore Street, Topsham. It is owned and managed by Lily Neale. There has been a bookshop at this address, originally Joel Segal Books, since the middle of the 1990s. In its early days it shared premises with a music shop, Musisca. The current incarnation of the shop as The Topsham Bookshop dates from November 2011.
Topsham Bookshop is noted for its colourful window displays.
Topsham Museum. Strand, Topsham.
The Museum has extensive collections of documentation on the history of Topsham and the actress Vivien Leigh.
Topsham Museum (Google street view)
This page last updated 8 September 2021
