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Exeter City HER

UNDERGROUND PASSAGES 1: Cathedral system of c.1200

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Description:	Excavation at King William Street in 1983 located a trench for a medieval aqueduct in three sections over c.20m about 30m north west of St Sidwell’s church (Recognition Event No. 77). The excavated evidence comprised a trench up to 3.3m deep contained a lead pipe bedded on a clay layer at the bottom, which had subsequently been dug out (Youngs et al. 1984, 213). This was interpreted as a section of the earliest piped water supply for the cathedral, constructed possibly in the third quarter of the 12th century; certainly in existence by 1226 when Serlo, the first Dean of Exeter, granted a third of the cathedral supply to St Nicholas’ Priory (Juddery and Stoyle 1995, ii); and probably de-commissioned in 1347-49 when the Cathedral Fabric Rolls record substantial expenditure on the construction of a new aqueduct from a spring called Headwell, including sums for ‘digging out the conduit’, conceivably the old pipes (Youngs et al. 1984, 216; Erskine 1983, 274 ff.). The evidence from King William Street comprises the only excavated fabric for the first cathedral aqueduct, although there is enough documentary evidence for a good deal to be said of the structure, and for its conjectural course to be plotted. A good deal of work has been done on this subject by John Allan, Jannine Juddery, and Mark Stoyle (Allan 1994; Juddery and Stoyle 1995), of which the following is a summary of the key points: The grant to St Nicholas’ Priory of 1226 already quoted is the first documentary reference to the system, but there are good grounds for thinking that it existed in the 1170s or 80s, if not still earlier. Architectural fragments of an elaborate lavabo or fountain house from the priory have been recovered in quantity dating to this period (Monument No. 11054; Allan 1999, 10), with the clear implication that the cathedral system is older than this (Allan 1994, 8-9; Juddery and Stoyle 1995, ii). The upper end of the pipeline was extended from St Sidwell’s Well to Headwell before 1300, presumably to augment the water supply (Juddery and Stoyle 1995, v). The precise course of the first aqueduct is largely conjectural, but three references in late-13th century documents show that it passed through a tower in the city wall at the end of St Martin’s Lane (now The Close, on the site of ‘New Cut’). This shows that the aqueduct turned south in the vicinity of the East Gate, whilst still outside the wall, and ran around the outside of the city wall to the position of this tower, equidistant between the east and south gates; this enables its course to be plotted with some confidence (Allan 1994, 13; Juddery and Stoyle 1995, Fig. 1). From the wall the line of the aqueduct across the close to the conduit house presumed to have been on the site of the later ‘St Peter’s Conduit’ close to the north-west corner of the Cathedral (Juddery and Stoyle 1995, iii). From the conduit in Cathedral Close, the subsidiary pipeline to St Nicholas’ Priory of 1226 (as above) probably took a course via Fore Street and Mary Arches Street to approach the site of the priory from the north east, or uphill, side (conjectural: Juddery and Stoyle 1995, iii and Fig. 1). Further extensions to this pipeline took place later in the 13th century, firstly to provide a private supply to a house in Friernhay Street (ibid.; Youngs and Clark 1982, 180; Recognition Event No. 75; Monument No. 11076 [see also Monument No. 11206]); secondly, possibly within this period, to supply another municipal conduit at Townwell, near St John’s Church. This may have originated as a well, but was later probably connected to a piped water supply from St Nicholas’ Priory, certainly by the middle of the 14th century, but possibly as early as the later 13th century (ibid., and Fig. 2). Extant: Yes


District:	Exeter
County:	Devon
Grid reference:	SX923929
Map reference:	[ EPSG:27700] 292307, 92900


Periods:	1068 - 1300
	NORMAN EXETER
Subjects:	AQUEDUCT


Identifiers:	[ ADS] Depositor ID - 11020.0

People Involved:

[ Publisher] Exeter City Council

Bibliographic References:

Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit (1983) Report to Exeter Archaeological Advisory Committee, 24.6.83, p. 7. Exeter City Council.
Youngs, S.M., Clark, J., & Barry, T.B. (1984) 'Devon, Exeter: King William Street', pp, 213, 215-6 in 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1983' in Medieval Archaeol. 28, pg(s)203-65. Society for Medieval Archaeology.
Nenk, B.S., Margeson, S., & Hurley, M. (1992) 'Devon, Exeter: East Gate', pp. 209, 211 in 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1991' in Medieval Archaeol. 36, pg(s)184-308. Society for Medieval Archaeology.
Youngs, S.M., Clark, J., & Barry, T.B. (1984) 'Devon, Exeter: King William Street', pp, 213, 215-6 in 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1983' in Medieval Archaeol. 28, pg(s)203-65
Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit (1984) Report to Exeter Archaeological Advisory Committee, 13.1.84, pp. 5-10. Exeter City Council.
Nenk, B.S., Margeson, S., & Hurley, M. (1992) 'Devon, Exeter: East Gate', pp. 209, 211 in 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1991' in Medieval Archaeol. 36, pg(s)184-308
Henderson, C.G. (1983-4) 'King William Street excavation and the Underground Passages', pp. 21-24 in Henderson, C.G. (ed), Archaeology in Exeter 1983/4. Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit.
Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit (1984) Report to Exeter Archaeological Advisory Committee, 13.1.84, pp. 5-10