Crawford Hotel

Devon churches 1

by jayhawk2000

The Blackdown Hills of east Devon are famous for their many ancient churches and quaint towns. Many hundreds of miles of narrow lanes lined by tall hedges twist through the hills.

Along one of those lanes between Ottery St. Mary and Seaton you might come across Southleigh, where you'll find this old church. It overlooks a field where dairy cows graze during the day.

CATHEDRAL GROUNDS.

by cazz38

Outside the Cathedral is just as breathtaking as inside.Underneath the Cathedral green is a Roman bath house,it now lies hidden,it was excavated in the 1970s and after a few years was covered over again.

NORTHERNHAY GARDENS/ROUGEMONT GARDENS.

by cazz38

Running around Rougemont Castle,these gardens are beleived to be the first public gardens to be built in the country.They are also home to the 1914-1918 war memorial.In the summer the gardens look beautiful with all the flowers,there is also plenty of seating areas.

Short History of Exeter!!

by angelis

"Pre-history and the Romans."

pictures taken from Exeter city council website.

Modern day Cornwall and Devon were once inhabited by the Dumnonii tribe. Evidence of iron age settlement in Exeter is pretty sketchy because the site is so built up, but every so often iron age implements are discovered on building sites. When they were building foundations for a new Crown Court building in 2002-3 the outline of an iron age hut was discovered along with pottery and other remains dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC.

Exeter properly enters the history books as Isca, a large Roman fort. It was built as the winter quarters for the Legio II Augustus around 55AD and is about as far as the Romans got in the conquest of the South West of England. Seems they made some kind of deal with the Western tribes, although no-one is sure what that deal was. Probably something to do with tin which the Romans needed a lot of and which was mined in West Devon and Cornwall.

The Roman fort enclosed an area of 42 acres on the site that is now Exeter town centre. It housed upwards of 6000 men, but was more than just a barracks. It was a garrison town with shops, hospital, workshops and granaries. A bath house was also excavated by accident during repairs to the Cathedral green and is said to be one of the finest examples of a Roman bath house in the country.

Some parts of the Roman walls of Isca were incorporated into Norman defenses and are still standing today.