Prehistory Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable
river teeming with fish, with fertile land nearby. Although there have been no major
prehistoric finds, these advantages suggest the site was occupied early.
Coins have been discovered from the
Hellenistic kingdoms, suggesting the existence of a settlement trading with the Mediterranean as early as . Such early towns had been a feature of pre-Roman
Gaul as described by
Julius Caesar in his
Commentaries and it is possible that they existed in
Britannia as well. The source
Geoffrey of Monmouth stated that when
Vespasian besieged the city in 49 AD its Celtic name was
Kaerpenhuelgoit, meaning 'town on the hill under the high wood'.
Roman times The
Romans established a 'playing-card' shaped (rectangle with round corners and two short and two long sides - "stadium") fort () named
Isca around AD 55. The fort was the southwest terminus of the
Fosse Way (Route 15 of the
Antonine Itinerary) and served as the base of the 5,000-man
Second Augustan Legion () at some time led by Vespasian, later Roman Emperor, for the next 20 years before they moved to
Caerleon in
Wales, which was also known as
Isca. To distinguish the two, the Romans also referred to Exeter as , "Watertown of the
Dumnonii", and Caerleon as Isca Augusta. A small fort was also maintained at
Topsham; a supply depot on the route between the two was excavated at near Topsham Road in 2010. The presence of the fort built up an unplanned civilian community ( or ) of
natives and the soldiers' families, mostly to the northeast of the fort. This settlement served as the
tribal capital () of the
Dumnonii and was listed as one of their four cities () by
Ptolemy in his
Geography (it also appeared in the 7th-century
Ravenna Cosmography, where it appears as an apparently
confused entry for ). When the fortress was abandoned around AD 75, its grounds were converted to civilian purposes: its very large
bathhouse was demolished to make way for a
forum and a
basilica, and a smaller-scale bath was erected to the southeast. but could not be maintained for public view owing to its proximity to the
present-day cathedral. In January 2015, it was announced that Exeter Cathedral had launched a bid to restore the baths and open an underground centre for visitors. In the late 2nd century, the ditch and rampart defences around the old fortress were replaced by a bank and wall enclosing a much larger area, some . Although most of the visible structure is older, the course of the Roman wall was used for the subsequent
Exeter city walls. Thus about 70% of the Roman wall remains, and most of its route can be traced on foot. The Devonian Isca seems to have been most prosperous in the first half of the 4th century: more than a thousand
Roman coins have been found around the city and there is evidence for copper and bronze working, a stock-yard, and markets for the livestock, crops, and pottery produced in the surrounding countryside. The dating of the coins so far discovered, however, suggests a rapid decline: virtually none have been discovered dated after 380.
Medieval times Bishop Ussher identified the
Cair , listed among the 28
cities of
Britain by the
History of the Britons, as Isca, although David Nash Ford read it as a reference to
Penselwood and thought it more likely to be
Lindinis (modern
Ilchester). Nothing is certainly known of Exeter from the time of the
Roman withdrawal from Britain around the year 410 until the seventh century. By that time, the city was held by the
Saxons, who had arrived in Exeter after defeating the
British Dumnonians at
Peonnum in
Somerset in 658. It seems likely that the Saxons maintained a quarter of the city for the Britons under their own laws around present-day Bartholomew Street, which was known as "Britayne" Street until 1637 in memory of its former occupants. Exeter was known to the Saxons as
Escanceaster. These permitted the city to fend off another attack and siege by the Danes in 893. (It is uncertain, though, whether they had lived in the city continuously since the Roman period or returned from the countryside when Alfred strengthened its defences.) According to
William of Malmesbury, they were sent beyond the
River Tamar, which was fixed as the boundary of Devon. (This may, however, have served as a territorial boundary within the former kingdom of
Dumnonia as well.) Other references suggest that the British simply moved to what is now the area, not far outside Exeter's walls. The quarter vacated by the Britons was apparently adapted as "the
earl's burh" and was still named Irlesberi in the 12th century. In 1136, early in
the Anarchy, Rougemont Castle was held against
King Stephen by
Baldwin de Redvers. Redvers submitted only after a three-month siege, not when the three wells in the castle ran dry, but only after the exhaustion of the large supplies of wine that the garrison was using for drinking, baking, cooking, and putting out fires set by the besiegers. During the siege, King Stephen built an earthen fortification at the site now known (erroneously) as Danes Castle. , built around 1200 flowing under three arches of the
Old Exe Bridge, with houses on the bridge and on the river bank, St Edmund's Church can be seen in the top left. The city held a weekly market for the benefit of its citizens from at least 1213, and by 1281 Exeter was the only town in the south-west to have three market days per week. There are also records of seven annual fairs, the earliest of which dates from 1130, and all of which continued until at least the early 16th century. Prior to the
expulsion of the Jews of England in 1290, Exeter was home to England's most westerly Jewish community. During the high medieval period, both the cathedral clergy and the citizens enjoyed access to sophisticated aqueduct systems which brought pure drinking water into the city from springs in the neighbouring parish of St Sidwell's. For part of their length, these aqueducts were conveyed through a remarkable network of tunnels, or underground passages, which survive largely intact and which may still be visited today. Exeter and
Bristol hosted the first recorded Common Council in the medieval England. The first detailed and continuous evidence of its existence and activity was founded after 1345. Formed by twelve "better and more discreet men" (in
Latin:
duodecim meliores), reelected each year, it was originally designed to control the abuse of the Major and of his four
stewards, which respectively presided over the borough court and the provost court. The members of the Common Council come from the same elite of wealthy citizens, as did the major and the stewards and this concern introduced a second conflict of interests in the government organism of the city.
Modern times ; Tudor and Stuart eras In 1537, the city was made a
county corporate. In 1549, the city successfully withstood a month-long siege by the so-called
Prayer Book rebels: Devon and Cornish folk who had been infuriated by the radical religious policies of King Edward VI. The insurgents occupied the suburbs of Exeter, burnt down two of the city gates and attempted to undermine the city walls, but were eventually forced to abandon the siege after they had been worsted in a series of bloody battles with the king's army. A number of rebels were executed in the immediate aftermath of the siege. The
Livery Dole almshouses and chapel at
Heavitree were founded in March 1591 and finished in 1594. When
John Hooker was appointed to the city payroll in 1561, he created the Court of Orphans as a municipal government for families broken by the premature death of their major economic source. He also was made the Common Council as the legal owner of any estate left to the orphan children of Exeter, until they have reached the age of 21 to be partially paid back. The orphan tax was used to fund the construction of the Exeter canal. The city's motto,
Semper fidelis, is traditionally held to have been suggested by
Elizabeth I, in acknowledgement of the city's contribution of ships to help defeat the
Spanish Armada in 1588; however its first documented use is in 1660. Schools in Exeter teach that the motto was bestowed by Charles II in 1660 at the Restoration due to Exeter's role in the
English Civil War. When in 1638
Reverend John Wheelwright was exiled from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and subsequently established a community on the banks of the
Squamscott River, he named the region
Exeter after its Devonian counterpart. During the
American Revolution it became the capital of
New Hampshire. Exeter was secured for Parliament at the beginning of the English Civil War, and its defences very much strengthened, but it remained under pressure from the Royalists. In October 1642, Parliament extended powers to send troops into the city to search out royalist supporters. In September 1643, Exeter was captured by the Cornish Royalist Army led by Prince Maurice.
Queen Henrietta Maria stayed in Exeter for the birth of her youngest daughter,
Henrietta, in 1644. The city remained firmly under the king's control until near the end of the war, being one of the final Royalist cities to fall into Parliamentarian hands. The surrender of Exeter was negotiated in April 1646 at
Poltimore House by
Thomas Fairfax. During this period, Exeter was an economically powerful city, with a strong trade of
wool. This was partly due to the surrounding area which was "more fertile and better inhabited than that passed over the preceding day" according to Count
Lorenzo Magalotti who visited the city when he was 26 years old. Magalotti writes of over thirty thousand people being employed in the county of Devon as part of the wool and cloth industries, merchandise that was sold to "the West Indies, Spain, France and Italy". Celia Fiennes also visited Exeter during this period, in the early 18th century. She remarked on the "vast trade" and "incredible quantity" in Exeter, recording that "it turns the most money in a week of anything in England", between £10,000 and £15,000. ; Georgian and Victorian eras 's 1744 map of Exeter Early in the
Industrial Revolution, Exeter's industry developed on the basis of locally available agricultural products and, since the city's location on a fast-flowing river gave it ready access to
water power, an early industrial site developed on drained marshland to the west of the city, at
Exe Island. However, when
steam power replaced water in the 19th century, Exeter was too far from sources of coal (or iron) to develop further. As a result, the city declined in relative importance and was spared the rapid 19th-century development that changed many historic European cities. Extensive canal redevelopments during this period further expanded Exeter's economy, with "vessels of 15 to 16 tons burthen [bringing] up goods and merchandise from
Topsham to the City
Quay". In 1778 a new bridge across the Exe was opened to replace the old medieval bridge. Built at a cost of £30,000, it had three arches and was built of stone. The first railway to arrive in Exeter was the
Bristol and Exeter Railway that opened a station at
St Davids on the western edge in 1844. The
South Devon Railway Company extended the line westwards to
Plymouth, opening their own smaller station at
St Thomas, above Cowick Street. A more central railway station, that at
Queen Street, was opened by the
London and South Western Railway in 1860 when it opened its alternative route to London. Butchers
Lloyd Maunder moved to their present base in 1915, to gain better access to the
Great Western Railway for transportation of
meat products to London. The first electricity in Exeter was provided by the Exeter Electric Light Company, which was formed at the end of the 1880s, but it was
municipalised in 1896 and became the City of Exeter Electricity Company. In 1896 £88,000 was spent constructing sewerage system which reduced the risk of infectious diseases, The first
horse-drawn trams in Exeter were introduced in 1882 with 3 lines radiating from the city's East Gate. One line went to St David's station via New North Road, the Obelisk (where the Clock Tower now stands) and St David's Hill. The second line went out along Heavitree Road to Livery Dole and the third went to Mount Pleasant along Sidwell Street. There was a depot off New North Road.
20th century A new bridge across the River Exe was opened on 29 March 1905, replacing the former Georgian structure. Constructed of
cast iron and steel to a
three-hinged arch design, it was built to the designs of Sir
John Wolfe Barry at a cost of £25,000. on
Exeter Quay in 1983 In the same year,
electric trams replaced the earlier horse-drawn system. A new route ran along High Street, down Fore Street, and over the Exe Bridge before dividing towards Alphington Road and Cowick Street. By the 1920s, tram services were increasingly seen as problematic due to congestion, high maintenance costs, and slow speeds in Exeter’s narrow streets. The only surviving Exeter tram, car 19, is preserved at the
Seaton Tramway. From April 1941 to April 1943, the city was defended by
No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron, known as the "Lwów Eagle Owls", based at
Exeter Airport. The Polish city of
Lwów shared Exeter’s motto,
Semper Fidelis ("Always faithful"). In April and May 1942, as part of the
Baedeker Blitz, launched in response to RAF attacks on
Lübeck and
Rostock, approximately of the city was destroyed by incendiary bombing. A total of 156 people were killed in the raids. Since 2012, a Polish flag has been raised over the Guildhall annually on 15 November. The day is now marked as "307 Squadron Day". Large areas of the city centre were rebuilt during the 1950s, often with limited effort to preserve historic structures. A notable exception was
The House That Moved, one of the oldest private residences in Europe, which was saved from demolition and relocated following intervention by the Ministry of Works. On 27 October 1960, following exceptionally heavy rainfall, the River Exe burst its banks, flooding large parts of Exeter, including Exwick, St Thomas, and Alphington. In 1997, the city was the site of a high profile unsolved murder. Fourteen year old
Kate Bushell, a pupil at what is now
West Exe School, was killed on 15 November while walking her dog along Exwick Lane. Despite extensive investigation, including appeals on
Crimewatch, the attacker has never been identified. The scheme attracted local opposition due to its scale and the redevelopment of parts of the historic street layout. It incorporated 123 residential units alongside retail development. To enable access for people with limited mobility, Exeter Community Transport Association operates a Shopmobility scheme providing wheelchairs and scooters for use in the city centre. In May 2008, an attempted bombing occurred at the Giraffe café in Princesshay. The attacker was the only person injured in the incident. On 12 October 2012,
John Lewis opened a store on Sidwell Street employing around 300 staff. A £30 million flood defence improvement scheme was approved in 2015 following a review by the
Environment Agency. The scheme aimed to improve flow capacity and resilience across the River Exe system. The
Exeter Pound, a local currency designed to encourage local trade, was introduced in 2015 and discontinued in 2018. On 28 October 2016, a major fire destroyed large parts of the
Royal Clarence Hotel and adjoining historic buildings at Cathedral Yard. The fire resulted in the loss of most of the hotel structure and severe damage to adjoining listed buildings within Cathedral Yard and the High Street frontage. Subsequent redevelopment proposals have progressed through multiple planning stages, with permission ultimately granted for a mixed residential scheme incorporating retained historic fabric. On 27 February 2021, a Second World War bomb was discovered at a construction site, leading to the evacuation of more than 2,600 people, including nearby residents, businesses, and University of Exeter students. The bomb was safely detonated by bomb disposal teams.
Homelessness Exeter has recorded relatively high levels of rough sleeping compared with other English local authorities. In the autumn 2020 snapshot, it had the sixth highest number of rough sleepers in England. In 2014, Exeter had one of the highest per capita rates of rough sleeping outside London. During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency accommodation was provided under the UK Government’s "Everybody In" initiative for rough sleepers and those at risk of homelessness. Government and council funding supported both short-term accommodation and longer-term housing initiatives, including the creation of move-on accommodation for people with experience of rough sleeping. ==Governance==