This is quite a story. This first building was founded by a woman who bore a King of England, four Earls, a Queen and the longest held Royal prisoner kept hostage in British history.
There is a Great Fire, a siege, and one of Exeter's earliest Toy Boys', World Wars, bombsites and Modernist re-invention, with Thin Lizzy performing live, and another King who was promoted to Sainthood, with loads of Vikings and assorted Normans, not to mention hundreds of French refugees and a world record for a steam locomotive.
This is the story that starts in St Olave's church in Fore Street and takes us via an historic Exeter furniture maker, the site of a former international poster purveyor which provided the saucy decor for ten thousand student bedsits, a Modernist, live music venue and then on to the much larger and longer lasting and more venerable Exeter Cathedral.
Yes it is Part 5 of my photo walk.
We are here in Fore Street and this is St. Olave's church, which was founded by Lady Glytha in 1053, and those of you who know your English history will be immediately aware from that date, that Glytha did not have very long to appreciate her handiwork. Glytha was the mother of King Harold.
We do know that thirteen years after Glytha founded this small church dedicated to King Olaf of Norway, later to become St. Olave, that William The Conqueror arrived at Hastings with an army of 7000 men and turned Saxon England, French, killing three of Glytha's sons in the process and locking another one up for 43 years. After most of her family were wiped out, that's the thanks you get for founding a church, Glytha disappeared from the history books and it is assumed she fled to Norway where she had many relatives.
Glytha dedicated the church to Olaf II Haraldsson who was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028 and later became Saint Olaf in 1030. He was also known as Olaf the Holy. It is an irony that Glytha dedicated the church to Olaf as he was born in Rouen the capital of Normandy and is thought to have used priests of Norman descent as his missionaries. It was the subsequent Norman invasion that saw Glytha lose everything.
The church was rebuilt in the 14th century and restored a few times after that so that what we see today, bears the scars of time and historic changes, leading to a fascinating interior, like no other ancient church I have visited.
Before Glytha disappeared it is thought that she led the revolt against the Norman invasion here in Exeter, which led to a great siege. The siege lasted 18 days but it was a hopeless cause and the surrender was inevitable. King William swore an oath not to harm the city but quickly established Exeter Castle to keep order and power. Most landowners had their property seized and it was transferred to Norman hands.
One of the earliest mentions of St. Olave's church in the newspaper archive is a short announcement which appears in several papers all around the country. An announcement of a simple wedding that obviously made national news, and an interesting one it is too, if only for the way it is written and worded and for what it doesn't exactly spell out. What it does do though is to use italics in a very subtle way, which I will display here.
London Moderator and National Adviser - Wednesday 04 February 1818
MARRIED.
At St. Olave's Church, Exeter, Mr. J. Richards, of that city, cooper, aged 22, to Miss Stone, a blooming damsel of seventy-two: The tender bride was conveyed to the Church in a sedan chair, the better to conceal her maiden blushes from the prying eye of curiosity.
One could probably use that concise image to build an entire novel.
There is some interesting history in an article in The Western Times of the 11th of June,1875 written at the time of one of the church's restorations, after it re-opened.
"Yesterday St. Olave's Church, Exeter, which has been closed for some months in order that certain alterations might be made, was reopened for public worship.The alterations are of considerable importance in so small a church."
There follows part of the history of the church, some of which I have already mentioned, namely the part played by Glytha.
"She built this house stately and beautiful-not as it now was-and during the restoration they found some token of her beautiful work on the stone capitals, work which those who erected the present building could not imitate, and the imitation of which those who had carried on this restoration had not attempted."
After a long and very critical account of the Civil War and how the church was treated by the Puritans, including use of the church interior as a graveyard, and the smashing of idols, it continues "God grant that the hand of the spoiler might never again come with axe and hammer to break down the carved work of the sanctuary or to desecrate to profane or base uses the soil with which were mingled the ashes of the forefathers of this parish. Beneath this church were laid the bones of the Mayors of Exeter for 25 years, and of many men and women who served God and their country well in their generation."
A Huguenot conformist congregation was started in 1686 at St. Olaves Church – one of two churches used by the refugee settlers, There was also a non-conformists congregation, founded in 1620. Those that attended St. Olaves numbered 120 in 1715, under the minister Andrew Majendie. Services were conducted in French, and the church was popularly known as the French church. This ceased in 1758 when its members joined the Anglican Church.
The Edict of Nantes of 1598 granted the minority Protestants of France substantial rights in the predominantly Catholic country. This period of religious tolerance lasted until 1685 when it was renounced by Louis XIV when Protestantism was declared Illegal.
All Protestant ministers were given two weeks to leave the country unless they converted to Catholicism and all other Protestants were prohibited from leaving the country. In spite of the prohibition, the renewed persecution – including many examples of torture – caused as many as 400,000 to flee France at risk of their lives.This exodus deprived France of many of its most skilled and industrious individuals, some of whom thereafter aided France's rivals in the Netherlands and in England.
Outside London, the largest foreign communities in England in the late 17th century were in Devon, Canterbury, and East Anglia where about a third of each population was Huguenot. In Devon, the largest groups were in Exeter and Plymouth. These settlements came about because of each town’s proximity to the sea and relationship with the textile trade, where immigrants could obtain work. In Exeter there were opportunities for skilled weavers in the flourishing serge business. The city briefly became famous for carpet production thanks to Swiss Huguenot Claude Passavant, who purchased a London workshop in 1755, and brought many of the weavers to Exeter. Huguenot Places
More changes were still to come.
Western Morning News - Monday 27 December 1915
ST. OLAVE’S CHURCH. EXETER.
At a solemn celebration of the Holy Eucharist at St. Olave's Church, Exeter, yesterday morning, the rector (Rev. E. C. Long) being the celebrant, the Bishop of Crediton (Dr. Trefusis) dedicated a handsome new reredos. The reredos which for beauty and size has few if any equals in West of England parish churches, includes a carved oak triptych, containing figures of saints and angels and carved oak panels. The principal theme of the artist is that of the incarnation of our Lord, and it's central figure is a beautifully carved statue of the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Child, with a panel representing the Annunciation below. There are also carved figures of St. Olave (the patron saint of the church), of St. Denys (patron saint of France) and St. Joseph (patron saint of Belgium) Niches are left for four other statues.....
Below is one of those tombs of a former Exeter Mayor. Thomas Salter was a silversmith at a time when Exeter had its own assay office.
This city has an interesting history with spoons dating from the 16th Century, although the assay office was not officially opened until 1700 when a date letter system was initiated. The town mark (a castle with three turrets) looks very similar to that of Edinburgh, but can be differentiated by the existence of the lion passant. Spoons of all the major forms and patterns are to be found.
This is an early Georgian Provincial Rat Tail Hanoverian Britannia Silver Tablespoon - from Exeter, by Thomas Salter
St. Olave's also has a connection to the world steam loco record that was set in 1904, just as we entered the 20th century.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 17 February 1934
G.W.R. TRAIN'S 102 MILES PER HOUR
Bathford Man Who Set Up a Record
We are indebted to Mr. J. M. A. Willsher for reminding us of a remarkable railway exploit achieved by a relative, Mr. M. W. Clements, for many years an express driver on the Great Western Railway, who died recently at Exeter, at the age of 81. In May, 1904, while driving a special mail train on the Great Western Railway from Plymouth to Paddington with the engine " City of Truro," Mr. Clements attained the highest speed ever officially recorded with a steam locomotive—102.8 miles an hour. This speed was attained on the Wellington Bank. The engine which accomplished this record run is now preserved in the recently established Railway Museum at York. Our informant adds that Mr. Clements had put in 47 years' service as driver of express passenger trains on the Great Western Railway. A man of genial disposition, he was for several years a sidesman at St. Olave's Church, Exeter. All his sons have followed his calling, and are now drivers on the G.W.R., and frequently pass through Bath. Mr. Clements was born, bred and brought up Bathford.
As steam locomotives were the fastest machines ever built up to that time we can be fairly sure that Mr Clements had travelled faster than any human before him.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser - Saturday 17 October 1959
A new £220,000 Corn Exchange in Exeter will have a car park, shopping arcade and a pannier market.
Completed in 1960 by the city architect Harold Rowe, here it is, still standing proud, an understated 20th century beauty in the Modernist style. It was built in concrete and glass and was opened as "St George's Hall" in 1960. The design involved a main frontage in three sections facing onto Market Street.
The three-storey side sections were faced with alternating bands of blue panelling and glass. Internally, the principal rooms were a market hall on the ground floor and an events venue on the first floor.
The events venue on the first floor was a popular venue in the 1970s and 1980s: performers included the rock band, Thin Lizzy in February 1972, the rock band, New Model Army, in May 1985 and the pub rock band, Dr. Feelgood in November 1989.
Following a refurbishment in 2007, the building was rebranded as the "Corn Exchange" recalling one of the uses of the earlier structure on the site. The works, which cost £1.8 million, involved improvements to the auditorium on the first floor as well as the conversion of the ground floor into a sustainable "food emporium". In January 2020, Exeter City Council confirmed that it was considering making further improvements to the Corn Exchange as an alternative to commissioning a completely new venue for major public events in the city.
Daily Herald - Monday 25 February 1963
Bitter punishment for six students
Six hard-drinking students who were blamed for damaging a dance-hall have been put on "the water wagon."
The sentence was imposed by the students' council committee of St. Luke's teachers' training college, Exeter, after an investigation into trouble at a dance at the end of last term.
Honour
Damage to the new St. George's Hall, Exeter was estimated at between £30 and £40 (£700 today)
As the six students sipped water in an Exeter pub last night, they agreed: "This is the worst possible punishment. But we are on our honour not to drink alcohol."
Some of the six have been put "on the wagon" until the end of this term. Others have to give up drink until after the summer term.
The central section of the building featured a tall brick structure with diamond-shaped decoration, to which the city coat of arms was fixed at first floor level, flanked by full-height concrete pillars supporting a perforated beam.
Further along my route I noticed this ghost sign high up on the side of a building. Wm. Brock and Co. This building was opened in 1884 and was built to replace the earlier one, destroyed in The Great Fire of Exeter in 1882.
Buckingham Express - Saturday 05 August 1882
GREAT FIRE IN EXETER.
Another large fire has lately raged in Exeter, destroying close upon £40,000 (£2.6 million today) worth of property. The scene of the fire was in Fore-street. Flames were first seen at the back of a linen-draper's in North-street and Fore-street. The fire spread so rapidly that before three females could be taken from the upper floor by means of a fire-escape they were almost suffocated. Mr. Willis, the proprietor of the shop, jumped from the second floor window into the street. The fire spread almost immediately to a wine merchants, a bootmaker's, and a fishmonger's, in the same street, as also to an unoccupied shop, the rebuilding of which was only completed a few days previously.
Simultaneously the flames spread to property in the rear, and from thence to Fore-street, destroying the large cabinet warehouse of Messrs. Brock and Co., and a drapery shop owned by Mr. Rattenbury, and partly burning the cabinet warehouse of Messrs. Goff and Gully. In both streets there was great reason for fearing that the flames would cross the road to property opposite, and it was only by the brigade deluging these premises with water that the fire was prevented spreading to High and South-streets. In the case of three houses the walls fell into the street. The Royal Horse Artillery and the 11th Regiment came to the assistance of the civil authorities, as also did the South-Western Railway Brigade. The fire at one time seemed likely to be even greater than it proved, as it was burning in all directions. No clue can be obtained as to the origin of the conflagration. At the Town Council ordinary meeting a vote of sympathy was passed with the numerous sufferers who have been burnt out, and a special grant of money was made as an acknowledgment of the assistance rendered by the troops. It is proposed to hold an inquiry as to the causes of the fires, three of which have occurred within a week, the origin in each case being a mystery.
Western Times - Friday 08 February 1884
THE NEW PREMISES OF MESSRS. BROCK AND CO. AT EXETER,
A remarkably large number of new buildings have been erected in the main streets of Exeter during the past few years, but perhaps none are more extensive or more calculated to attract public attention than those of Messrs Brock and Co., upholsterers and drapers, now on the point of completion in Fore and North-streets. The old premises were destroyed by fire in 1882, and by purchasing adjoining premises Messrs, Brock acquired the possession of a site which has enabled them to erect buildings that will be a great convenience to themselves and their customers, and which are an ornament to the city.
The premises will embrace three distinct establishments - one for cabinet and upholstery in Fore-street, one for retail drapery having an entrance from both streets, and the third will be the wholesale house in North-street. There is every facility for communication between the several establishments during the day, but as soon as business is over the departments will be completely cut off from one another by iron sliding doors, set in walls 2 feet 3 inches thick. A good deal of Doulton stone has been used, but the chief material is brick—that used in the interior being supplied from Mr. Hancock’s yard, whilst the exterior is the red rubber brick from Berkshire and Shortwood facing.
There is also a considerable quantity of iron work, the wholesale premises in the rear being carried entirely on girders supported by iron columns, whilst the front in North-street is also strengthened by wrought iron girders some twenty inches in depth. The impression given by the general appearance of the building is one of stability. The style of architecture is Queen Anne, and opportunity has been taken to insert in the Fore-street, face panels bearing the trade mark of the firm— three Griffins heads - as also various floral designs. The Fore-street frontage is equally divided between the cabinet and the retail drapery departments, and judging from the former, which is already open, the two shops will make a remarkably good show. The cabinet department is already open and fully stocked. A variety of sideboards of exquisite workmanship, and articles of furniture in a kind of mahogany (much resembling rosewood), which is now very fashionable, are among the things on the second floor, and higher up are the ventilated quilts invented by one member of the firm, and for which a patent has been granted.
But to return to the building. The cabinet department is in reality a succession of show-rooms—each 120 feet long by over 40 feet wide, and all sharing in a special arrangement of lighting from the roof, so that the goods can be seen to the utmost- advantage. In the basement linoleums, floor cloths, mats, and paper hangings are arranged on view. On the ground floor suites of furniture, carpets, and furnishing drapery. The first floor is devoted to drawing and dining-room furniture, the second to bed- room requisites, and the third to bedsteads and hall furniture.
The communication with the different floors is either by means of a lift or by an easy but somewhat remarkably designed staircase of pitch pine, with exceedingly handsome American walnut hand-rails. The provision for the ventilation on every floor is ample, and indeed for this purpose there is a very thorough system running through the entire premises.
Beneath the drapery shop there will be work-rooms. Above it will be a show-room, rooms for the convenience of ladies trying on dresses or bonnets ; The second floor, over both the drapery shops, will be occupied by sitting-rooms for the male and female assistants, a dining-room for all, and offices. On the higher floors will be the bedrooms for the assistants and servants.
The fittings throughout are of a very complete character, and the premises are altogether well calculated for the ready despatch of the business of the firm. The building was commenced in April last, and it is understood that by next month the whole block will have been completed. The contract was something over £12,000 (£1,000,000 today). The architects are Messrs, Best and Camming, of Exeter ; the builders, Messrs. E. C. Howell and Co., of Bristol ; and Mr. H, Cross acts as clerk of the works, As soon as the new premises are complete Mesars. Brock will entirely transfer their business from the smaller shops they have occupied a few doors below, The firm may well be congratulated on the improvement they have made in the street architecture of the city.
This is a detail of 187 High Street and it is a listed building of the late 19th century. However, there is something of a mystery, as English Heritage say the building was listed because a "Niche in the gable contains a life-sized mediaeval carved figure of St Peter. This is said to have formed an angle bracket to the ancient timber house which stood on this corner, (Listed on account of figure of St Peter)."
The mystery is that there is no figure in that niche. Some Googling around various archives and red herrings led me to this information, that this figure was removed in 1986 and placed in Exeter Museum where it has been carefully conserved. In the early 19th century it stood above what was then Holman Ham the chemist. It is thought that the figure dates from the late 15th or early 16th-century. Carved from oak, it is not typical of local work, nor of English carving. A Paper on the Statue of St Peter, North Street, Exeter
There have been many different businesses on this site, both before this building was built and since.
Morning Herald (London) - Wednesday 18 September 1839
THE RESPIRATOR, or BREATH-WARMING INSTRUMENT.—
HOLMAN and HAM, Chemists, EXETER, desire to advise the medical profession of Exeter and the public, of their AGENCY for Mr. JEFFREYS'S RESPIRATOR, and of their having laid in a considerable assortment of this most useful instrument, a full description of which may be had on application.
By 1863 you could buy the finest Stilton cheese from Melton Mowbray at J Mason, Grocer and Provision Dealer.
In 1879 adverts for Holman Ham and Co were still appearing suggesting that the site had more than one business unit. They sold The Patent Burton Gelatine Powder which will fine ale in a few hours, or Moller's Cod Liver Oil, purest Norwegian, silver medal winner at the Paris Exhibition.
By 1908 there was an auctioneers and estate agents on the site, Scott Smith and Co. "have several INNS and HOTELS to LET, with early possession. Ingoings, £I80, £300, £400, £700, etc. Full particulars on application.
By 1956 it was Hepworth's Tailors.
In 2002 it was a branch of the national chain of poster shops Athena. Probably Athena's most famous ever poster was of a female tennis player scratching her derriere to put it politely. It was believed at one time to be the most widely sold poster in the world with over 2,000,000 copies sold.
In my previous career as a picture framer I framed a vast array of weird and wonderful objects, so nothing really ever surprised me. About twenty years ago a scruffy looking man came into the shop where I worked and unrolled an extremely dog eared copy of this very poster. I was bemused by him not least because the poster was in such a poor state, but he wanted it framed so who was I to argue. I didn't like to suggest that he could have bought a pristine new copy for only a few pounds, and we got into conversation.
He explained that the girl in the photo was actually his former girlfriend and that he had taken the photo. The time worn poster that he had unrolled on the workbench was actually the original copy.
Birmingham Live - 3rd April 2010
Photographer behind Athena's famous 'Tennis Girl' poster Martin Elliott loses cancer fight.
THE Midland photographer whose cheeky shot became one of the world’s most popular posters has died. Martin Elliott was the creator of ‘Tennis Girl’ – a worldwide best-seller, featuring his then girlfriend, 18-year-old Fiona Butler.
Today the building is both a branch of the Yorkshire Bank and Threshold Financial Services.
After passing McDonalds I ended up at the cathedral where I will start Part 6 of my photo walk.
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