A walk along the walls part 6 (Magdalen Road)

 

Most historians agree that Magdalen Road is one of the Roman roads into Exeter, and has retained its importance for centuries.  Unfortunately, the Romans left the city with a road system that suited the legions and not the citizens of the 21^st century.  This month, we’ll walk from the village along Magdalen Road towards Heavitree.  Because it has always been a busy road, it has seen much development and redevelopment and there’s not a great deal of the past to be seen by walkers.

Leaving the Mount Radford, immediately one comes to a narrow stretch; it was wide enough for traffic in the 19^th century when the brick walls on the right were built as boundaries for the houses in St Leonard’s Road.  On the left are modern walls, and all the way to Barrack Road, the left-hand side of the road follows a line which is centuries old.  There is a very short stretch of stone wall before the road opens out, revealing the Art Deco building on the right.  Now flats and business offices, for many years it was the showroom for Kastner Autos – a listed building.

Opposite, almost hidden under the hedge by the wall of College Avenue, is a small stone marking the boundary between of Exeter and Heavitree; there may have been a gallows here.  We pass several brick-built houses on the right dating from the early 20^th century with matching brick walls.  They are examples of an era in the city when numerous well-built brick buildings were constructed around the city.  Marlborough Road has further examples. 

On the left the hedge bounding the university car park provides a little glimpse of wildness, but like most institutional boundaries, there is little botanical diversity.  Trees in the car park do add to the interest.  Further up, on the opposite side the walls and hedges of the modern properties are similar.

This is where a little more of the ancient road pattern appears, with a coach house on the right, Baring Crescent opposite and several houses with their origins in the 19^th century.  The construction of the crescent must have encouraged wealthy people to want houses in the vicinity. 

It looks as if the foundations of the walls at the “chicane” are old walls using traditional stone construction, with the wall of the first houses in Baring Crescent being topped with cob and rendered with a tile cap.  At some stage a doorway was let into the wall, and then blocked.  There’s an Ordnance Survey benchmark in the brick on the left of the doorway.  What has happened between here and the shops looks very confused; obviously there has been a twentieth century insertion, but the old tiling along the top has been kept.  But why does the (very) rough stone wall beyond have tiling as well?  Perhaps it was once rendered and the tiles were there to protect the render?  It is a section of small and ill-assorted stones, suggesting it wasn’t a field boundary.

The line of four cottages and businesses are an interesting addition to the street scene.  They date from the early 1880s, and were originally called Baring Cottages.  Oddly, they were numbered from Heavitree towards Exeter, so the first one you come to was once number 4.  They have varied in use between private houses, business offices and shops.  So, at different times, you could have found a shoemaker, a dairyman and café, a tailor, groceries, DIY shop and builders. 

Now compare the walls on your left with those opposite.  Both could be described as having a stone base with bricks above, but they are quite different.  One has four brick courses and a cap, the other more than 30 courses on the stone base and a cap.  The difference is in the dates.  The wall by the shops probably dates from the creation of Baring Crescent, and used a lot of local stone.  Opposite, Victoria Park Road is much later, and the wall demonstrates ostentation --- the owners could afford a lot of bricks, but still needed a stone base for their wall.  There’s a letterbox in the wall, dating from the reign of George the 5th.  During his reign, nobody expected that there would be a King George the 6th as Edward  (the 8^th) was first in line to the throne.  So the letterbox simply reads “G R” without a number.

The east side of Victoria Park Road starts with a very rough old wall; it was good that the builders of the 1930s house in Magdalen Road decided to keep this link with the past.  (Until after the First World War, Victoria Park Road was named Victoria Terrace.  However, long before that, the tennis club was known as the Victoria Park Club, or even Victoria Park Tennis and Croquet Club, where tennis and croquet could be played.)

You could stop here and return to the village, or make a loop with the roads on the right, with the very fine 19^th century houses in Victoria Park Road and Lyndhurst Road (which was originally called Albert Terrace to match Victoria’s royal spouse).  Or, go a little further to the last old walls of Magdalen Road, one on the left of the yard of the redeveloped school and the brick and stone wall at the end of Manston Terrace.  For the latter, there have obviously been small buildings in the past, leaving their mark on the brickwork.  An old map calls the building on the north a “lodge” and marks a tiny annexe to the south.

This is the last of the six walks along the walls; thank you to those who have enjoyed reading about them, or have followed them for yourselves.