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Summary

Site of the Gardeners Arms which was built on the site of an earlier house in the 1850s. The pub was demolished in the 1930s and about half the site was incorporated into a widened Ludwell Lane which was renamed Coronation Road. A new Gardeners Arms was then built to the south of the original public house. This in turn was demolished in 2000 when the site was redeveloped for housing.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PUBLIC HOUSE (Built, XIX - 1850 AD to 1856 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Gardeners' Arms (P.H) marked at the northern end of Ludwell Lane near its junction with Salter's Hill. There are ranges of outbuildings around a yard on the south side of the main building and a pump just to the south again of these.

Collings, A. G., 2000, Archaeological Assessment of Site of Gardeners Arms, Coronation Road, Wonford, Exeter (Draft) (Report - Assessment). SDV336299.

The earliest deed located for a property on the site is dated 1796 but a conveyance made in that year cites deeds back to 1691. It is described in 1773 as the 'house and farm of South Wonford' and as South Wonford House in 1796. The site is shown as an irregular reversed-L shaped building on the 1843 Tithe map. The transition from house to The Gardeners' Arms appears to have been made in the 1850s by Philip Williams Putt of Heavitree a carpenter and joiner. The earliest mention of the Gardeners' Arms Inn is a sale notice of 1860. The building was completely demolished in the 1930s. About half of its site was incorporated into a widened Ludwell lane, renamed Coronation Road. A new public house was built to the design of the Exeter architect E. Kemeys Jenkin on a site between the 1850s building and the main part of South Wonford House. It was demolished in 2000 prior to redevelopment of the site.
Two other structures on the site at the time of the assessment in 1999 were a modern outhouse and a Heavitree stone wall forming a semi-circle. The wall does not correspond to any historic map although it is visible on the 1945 aerial photos.

Collings, A.J. + Reed, S.J. + Stead, P.J. + Allan, J., 2010, The Medieval Moated site at Gardener's Arms, Wonford, Exeter, 94 (Article in Serial). SDV362969.

The Gardeners' Arms appears to have been built at the northern end of the site of South Wonford House in the 1850s. The name is first recorded as such in the 1860s. The 1888 Ordnance Survey map suggests that parts of the former buildings on the site may have been incorporated into outbuildings shown to the rear of the public house. A photo taken of the building in the 1930s, prior to its demolition, suggests that building stone from the former house may have been reused in its construction. The public house was demolished in the 1930s and half of the site was taken up with a widened Ludwell Lane which was renamed Coronation Road. A new public house was built to the south which was demolished in 2000.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6356 - Archaeological Assessment of the site of the Gardeners' Arms, Coronation Road, Wonford, Exeter
• EDV8261 - Archaeological investigations on the site of the Gardener's Arms, Coronation Road, Exeter

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