| Description: | The existence of a battery at the western end of Exe bridge is confirmed by many documentary references, among them a Royalist inventory of ordnance placed around the city after the successful siege of September 1643 notes ‘On the Bridge, 2 broken iron guns, one sacar & a faulcon’ (Stoyle, M., 1996, From Deliverance to Destruction; Rebellion and Civil War in an English City, 206). The battery or strongpoint at this location was centred around the end of the bridge itself, the turnpike (set up in January 1643, Stoyle, M., 1987, St. Thomas during the Civil War, Exeter Archaeology 1985/6, 54-58 [also produced as Stoyle, M., 1987, The Parish of St. Thomas during the English Civil War, EMAFU report No. 87.08], 1) and the Seven Stars Inn (ibid., 2). In March of the same year, fortification work began on the bridge itself, and this has been interpreted as indicative of the fact that strong Parliamentary defensive positions did not exist in St. Thomas at this point (ibid., 1). This battery was therefore the furthest west of the Parliamentary defensive positions in the immediate environs of the city, and played an important role in defending this side of the city during the Royalist sieges. Despite valiant efforts to oust the Royalists from their positions in St. Thomas, by the beginning of August Royalist forces were reported to be ‘at ease’ in the parish, and Parliamentary pioneers were reported to be working on the bridge, after which there is no further mention of the bridge in the accounts: ‘it seems very likely that their work on this day (19th August) was connected with the pulling down of part of the bridge, the Parliamentary position on the west bank at last proving untenable’ (ibid., 2). |
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