Looking at St Leonard's, Exeter: July 2023

At the east of St Leonard's is an area that was once referred to as Matford Field. It now consists of the land belonging to the houses in Matford Avenue, Leighdene Close, Matford Road, the flats on the east of Matford Lane and the houses in Wonford Road which abut on this. This is an attempt to describe the history and development of the area, with the aid of maps and pictures.

The history of St Leonard's by Diamond was published in 1873. The book included a map showing the church parish 100 years earlier. Madford Lane curves round to become Wonford Road and leads to Great Madford House (now Old Matford). Oddly, Bellair is not shown. The area of Matford Field is blank.

Diamond's second map shows several changes in 100 years.

It now shows Bellair and Coaver to the south, the Veitch family home near Barrack Road, and many more houses along Lyndhurst Road, Wonford Road, Victoria Park Road. There is still no development on Matford Field, as can be seen in the earliest large-scale OS map that I have found online. In this, as in some other pictures, I have shown the map alongside the image from Google Earth

This shows a field division and I have found the two fields with names Matford Great Field and Matford Field. These two fields were used for the July 1850, the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain annual show, which I have described earlier

http://lookatstls.blogspot.com/search/label/Agricultural%20Show

The two fields were covered with wooden sheds for animals and the latest developments in agricultural equipment. Afterwards there was an auction of fence materials and the wooden sheds --- recycling is not a modern idea, and possibly, the scrap materials from this show were handled in a better way than after some 21st century events where the priority is to get rid of things!

The next reference to the area comes with it being used for rugby, by Exeter's team, at the end of the 1880's. It appears that there were no facilities for changing and teams changed at a hotel in South Street!

In 1892, an auction was advertised, by which time the road layout had been planned. Here is the cover of the auction and the accompanying map.

However, at very short notice, the sale was cancelled. As can be seen from the map, there were now two houses on Matford Field, either side of Matford Road, at the junction with Wonford Road.

These had not appeared on another Victorian OS map, from about 1874, but the Great Field is now shown as an orchard, and the area to the east (Deepdene Close now) is Nursery and the grounds of Old Matford.

At some time after the cancelled sale, four houses were built on the east of Matford Avenue, on the boundary of what became Deepdene Close. I have found a request for a servant in one of the houses dated from 1913. Three of those houses stand today. The fourth was called Deepdene, and the houses of Leighdene Close are built on the large garden of this house. (I will refer to it as Deepdene House, to prevent confusion with the present private road, Deepdene Close.

The four houses appear in the map from 1905 along with the coach house on Wonford Road, and Oakdene on the corner of Matford Road and Matford Avenue. Two plots have been marked out on the east side of Matford Road

More houses were built along Wonford Road, Matford Road and Matford Avenue between the wars. The map below is dated 1932 and shows the outline of the houses numbers 25,27,29 and 31 in Matford Avenue. The same two plots are marked in Matford Road, but are not developed. But The Gables in Matford Road is there. Deepdene's garden has grown, expanding towards the east and south with formal paths and (possibly) a glasshouse. There houses and bungalows on the western arm of Matford Avenue.

The map below shows the area in about 1935. Copies of this map were used (overprinted in German) by the bombers in Exeter's Blitz

There are some odd aspects to the housing in this map. The former Lord Mamhead Homes has a strange garden shape using several plots from the 1892 sale map. Its neighbour to the south does not fit into any of those plots. A very strange curved boundary is shown for the original house at the north end of Matford Avenue, fronting Wonford Road. The large garden of Deepdene appears divided internally, with a strange deviation from the 1892 plots to accommodate a house in what is now Deepdene Park. The Matford Lane end of Matford Avenue is shown as parkland adjacent to Coaver. The southern arm of Matford Avenue has been developed.

And there is a tennis court in the angle of Matford Avenue. At some stage, the Vicars Choral of Exeter Cathedral (disbanded in the early 1930s) had owned much of old Matford Field as a recreational area, and their financial records show that local house-owners had to pay compensation for "loss of amenity" to this organisation. (That odd charge remains in the title deeds of several houses.) Watch out below for the tennis court!

During the blitz, some bombs fell in the area, and the records for May 1942 show a death in Matford Lane, but no mention of bombs in the area, although this is when --- supposedly --- Deepdene House was destroyed by a firebomb and other houses were damaged.

After the war, the RAF took aerial photographs of much of Britain. Here are some:

That's dated 30th September 1945 and shows the tennis court and a formal garden to the east of the ruins of Deepdene House, along with new houses in Deepdene Close.