Alex Adams from the University of Exeter Grounds Team will lead a walk through the University grounds, highlighting the amazing collection of trees they hold. As you may know there have been changes due to new buildings having been erected. Alex will talk about how nature diversity and green spaces have been maintained on campus and are looked after. The grounds and gardens of the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus have been awarded the title of Accredited Botanic Garden by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) in July 2025.
Previous Events
Laurie Fentiman and Angela Goddard who wrote our recently published 'Discovering Exeter' booklet on this area will lead aur walk. So we have a chance to ask questions and get expert answers on what will be more than doing the walk in the booklet on your own. Even if you done the walks there, doing it in company will add a new dimension. You might know that Countess Wear has a fascinating social and industrial history from the medieval period right up to today.
Kitty Vega will talk about the ISCA Collection, the work of Henry Wykes, and efforts to preserve this collection by Peter Thomas and now the South West Heritage Trust.
Join Kitty, a project manager specialising in heritage collections and a current PhD student at the University of Exeter, to uncover Exeter’s past through the remarkable ISCA Photographic Collection - one of the city’s most significant visual archives.
Naome Glanville, the Arts and Culture Co-ordinator at the University of Exeter, will speak to us about the University's Art Collection, including some Exeter/Devon artworks in her talk.
Following our meetings with businesses, local residents and local Councillors, Exeter Civic Society together with InExeter and Citizen Architects (trading name of Fabrica Architecture Ltd) will present the latest suggestions for the improvement of this important street in Exeter. For the Open Day we were invited to use the Devon Ukranian Association premises, which opened earlier this year in North Street. The Open Day follows a Charette meeting with experts to be held on 10 June and will present the results from that workshop. We hope the Open Day will attract your attention, whether you are local to the area, have your business there or are just generally interested to see one of the oldest streets in Exeter which, we feel, has been a bit neglected for decades being improved. Bring your ideas, discuss them with us - and hopefully this will set some decision taking wheels spinning.
Diana Taylor will guide our walk in Junew. We will start outside Waitrose where the Heavitree workhouse used to be. We will then proceed up to Polsloe Road mainly down the main street, veering off to the Heavitree Church area. There are a lot of historic places in Heavitree and the walk will be focusing on these.
Our Saturday meeting in May will be an afternoon social event at St Thomas church from 14.00 which will include a talk and tour of the church. We will have a buffet tea for which there will be a small charge. We did hope to use the church hall but that is now not available. Access to the church is via Cowick Street where you can get many busses stopping either at St Thomas station or opposite the Sawyers Pub near Vicarage Road. There may be some on-street car parking and it is possible to park in the Cowick Street shopping centre for a fee. If you wish to attend can you confirm to Keith Lewis by email to help us plan the catering (keithatecs@gmail.com) .
The County Hall Tree Walk will be starting at the earlier time of 11.00am. Ed Dolphin will lead the walk, which is scheduled for approx. 90 mins, but the length is flexible and depends on the weather. It will be joint event with Sidmouth Arboretum, as they celebrate their tree week. Numbers are limited to 15 from us: Sat, 18 April, my count was up to 9, so 6 spaces left only. You need to book yourself in via out whatsapp group or send me a text message to 07766 706614. I will let you know once the booking is full.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Ed Dolphin, our speaker for this meeting, will talk about Sidmouth Arboretum.
Sidmouth's remarkable treescape was recognised in 2012 when the town and surrounding valley were declared a Civic Arboretum where all the local trees are celebrated. Originally a community led project, it is now a registered charity dedicated to engaging people with their trees and enhancing the treescape.
Hilary Neville will lead a walk in the St. James's Park area. We will look at the history of the area, including some changes that have taken place since Hazel Harvey wrote Exeter Civic Society's "Discovering Exeter: Sidwell Street" in the 1980s, which is now being revised for its second edition. Those who joined our visit at the Football Stadium last year will remember how rural this area looked in the 19th century.
The modern University of Exeter plays a major role in all aspects of the city’s life. But how did so small a city, even with so long a history, come to be selected as a base for a university? Julia Neville explores how - against the odds - a few dedicated men and women nurtured the idea of a university in Exeter and fought for funding and support to make tier vision a reality.
Wendy Rakestrow is guiding a walk through Exwick, Come and join us to see what we can find of the old Essoic village.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book and more recently in Pevsner, Exwick grew exponentially in the late twentieth century.
The walk is mostly on the flat and the one hill can be missed out if necessary.
Please be aware that the walk is no circular one, it will finish at The Thatched House pub, where there is a bus stop nearby and shops as well as access back to the river walk.
Unfortunately the pub isn't open in the afternoon and the public toilets are also closed.
As always, you do this walk at your own risk. You won't be insured by the society or the lead walker.
Keith and Gert will lead a meeting dealing with latest developments, concerns and issues in Exeter. This will inform you about the work we are currently doing and will provide you with the chance of input and raising new issues.
Stuart Blaylock has agreed to guide us through Bowhill. The numbers of visitors will be limited to max 20. We visit Bowhill, the house on Dunsford Hill, which Stuart Blaylock talked to us about earlier in 2025. He has agreed to guide us on our visit and there will be a small charge of £3 each to cover his costs.
If you wish to attend this visit please contact Keith Lewis by email keithatecs@gmail.com, but numbers will be limited to 20. We hope to provide some light refreshments. Parking is possible but if you are using the bus, the P should take you to Dunsford Hill, the E to Buddle Lane and the A to Cowick Lane, but please check the Stagecoach timetables.
In a more light-hearted meeting with some musical extracts, John Davidson will start the New Year 2026 off with a talk about a selection of Exeter Buildings and stories associated with them.
This walk will follow the route we set up as a possible walk for the North Street Improvement project. The rich history of this area will perhaps make a nice shorter walk for tourists who want to get rid of the normal trails. In January we want to explore the possibilities. Gert will lead this walk, but hopes participants will chip in with whatever they know. You need a good amount of mobility, as we will climb stairs and have to master some up and down walking.
As always, you do this walk at your own risk. You won't be insured by the society or the lead walker.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Ever asked youself who puts up the Christmas Lights or is responsible for all floral decorations in the city centre? Come and find some answers in Nicola Wheeler's talk. She is the CEO of InExeter and will speak about Exeter's BID (Business Improvement District) and what inner city improvements she is planning to do in the next 5 years.
Stephen Mariner will lead a walk through the history of important sites in St Leonard's. This is the rescheduled walk which had to be cancelled in June. Half a year later it will become our pre-Christmas walk, where we usually end up for a hot drink in a cafe/pub along the way.
An early note that the Society’s Annual General Meeting will be on Saturday 15 November at the Mint Methodist Church on Fore Street. We expect the formal business will be followed by a discussion about the Society’s activities and a social lunch. If you have any items you want to raise at the meeting or nominations for the committee, please let Andy McKeon know – andy.mckeon@btinternet.com .
Martin Weiler will lead this visit to St James Park.
Come and enjoy a leisurely stroll around Exeter City Football Club's stadium St James Park. Learn about the history of this 'Parish Field' stretching back as far as the 1600s. Hear how the pitch that was once used for fattening pigs played host to European Champions Manchester United. Visit the Club's Museum with a vast array of items relating to the Club's heritage including the unique fact that Exeter City were Brazil's first ever opponents.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Ben Clapp will be our speaker for this meeting.
As part of the Festival of Devon in the 1920s, www.devontwentiesfestival.co.uk. Julia Neville will lead a walk around Exeter city centre highlighting how Exeter in the 1920s was already adapting to its modern functions as a centre for learning, technology, local government and leisure activities and jettisoning the industrial activity that represented its past. Pre-booking by email to hello@devontwentiesfestival.co.uk is essential. Update 5 Oct: NO FURTHER BOOKINGS POSSIBLE AS EVENT IS OVERSCRIBED.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Fiona Carden will speak about CoLab, which she has been leading for years. CoLab was set up as Collaborative Community and Social Laboratory more than 10 years ago and as a multi-agency wellbeing hub has become a model of national significance in the sector. Together with Lord Charles Courtenay, Earl of Devon, she also now chairs 'Exeter Partnership', former 'Liveable Exeter Place Board'.
Ian Maxted will guide a walk he designed as a literary walk for Heritage Open Days, September 2025. This walk is part of the 'Discovering Exeter Walks', individual events run by Exeter Civic Society.
David Solman will lead our second tree walk, this time through Bull Meadow Park in St. Leonard's. The ground of the park is uneven, so please bring adequate footwear. There will be a chance to sit together for a cup of tea and biscuit afterwards in the nearby 'Old St. Leonard's Hall' in Roberts Road, EX2 4HD.
ECS thinks this would be a good time to start thinking of how to improve North Street, a street which could do with an uplift. This is a closed event, for which you will have to book yourself in by emailing your details to gertvonhoff@btinternet.com .
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
In his talk, our speaker Hugh Meller will take us on an informative, entertaining and amusing trip through the graves and memorials of the notable and notorious people found in Exeter and Devon. The presentation embraces the rich and the poor, the magnificent and the quaint and the sad and the quirky, both in the memorials and gravestones and the lives (and deaths) of the people remembered.
Hilary Neville has planned our next walk. July’s walk takes us out of the City to visit three villages: Pinhoe, Poltimore and Broadclyst. Points of interest will range from ancient churches to brand new housing, and there’s a great view from near Pinhoe Church. The walk is five miles long, and includes a long climb at the start up to Pinhoe church. But don’t be deterred! It is all quite easy underfoot. It will take place on Monday 14th July, starting at 11:00 am, at Pinhoe Library - please note the date and time which are planned in order to allow us to break for lunch at the Poltimore House cafe.
OUR SPEAKER IS ILL, SO SO WE HAD TO CHANGE SPEAKER AND TOPIC.
Robert Guyver will now speak on 'Lady Harriet Acland’s American Adventure (1776-1778) and the rest of her life.’ We are very grateful that Robert agreed to step in with very short notice.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Our speaker John Davidson will inform us about the lost rivers of Exeter and what can be done to 'daylight' some of them again.
For an afternoon of socialising, welcoming and bringing together new and long-standing members, we will meet at the Quaker's Meeting House.
We hope the weather will be kind enough for us to use the lovely garden here for a social event, but there will also be a short presentation by our member Chris Dent about the Quaker movement and the Meeting House.
Naome Glanville, the University's Arts und Culture Coordinator, will kindly guide us along the Sculpture Trail in the grounds of the University of Exeter. Even if you have done this walk before, as many of us will have, I am sure we will get new insights. In order to manage numbers, can you please email Gert if you are interested to come along (gertvonhoff@btinternet.com). The University grounds are hilly, so please bring appropriate footwear. We will start off at 2pm with a short introduction by Emma Molony of 'Double Elephant Print', who will give us a short presentation about the 'Print and Paper' project - which recently had an exhibition in Sidwell Street and documents the history of paper-making in Exeter and surroundings. It is part of a project between the Double Elephant Print Workshop and one of our academics in Geography. You can find a link to information about the exhibition in the side column.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Our speaker is Stuart Blaylock who will tell us about Bowhill House on Dunsford Road. The house was built c1500 for Roger Holland, a prominent Exeter citizen, MP and Sheriff of Devon. Stuart’s expert knowledge resulted in his book - Bowhill, Exeter, Devon: The Archaeological Study of a Building Under Repair, 1977-1995.
Do join us (again) for a leisurely walk around the ‘wrong side of the river’ as St Thomas has been traditionally known to the locals. Find out some of the reasons why it may have been true and why those who live here don’t agree! We won’t have time to cover the whole area but will include several varying sites of interest. Wendy Rakestrow will lead this walk, which will come in several loops, so if you do not want to do the whole walk you can drop out earlier. We all hope the weather will be kinder to us than in October when only a very few rain hardy members made it to this walk and reported back how very interesting it had been, So thanks, Wendy, for offering it again. Keep the clouds at bay!
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
With the 'Publication Draft of the Exeter Plan' being published and consulted upon, this will be a good time to inform the Society about our findings and discuss them. If you want to inform you about what we sent as representations on 6 Feb, please read our News about this: https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/ecs-submitted-representations-to-exeter-publication-plan/ .
The final quarter of 2024 and the first few weeks in the near year have been full of consultations and we will update at the meeting upon what has been suggested. Topics include: Water Lane OUTLINE approval; Clarendon House; Energy Plant next to Marsh Barton Train Station; new Mallison Bridge.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
'Exeter Heritage Volunteers' have just been awarded 3 years funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund starting from 1st November. They will be spending the next few weeks putting plans in place for the future and introduce them to us at this meeting.
Gert is offering a walk along the new development alongside Prince Charles Road, which will be the first low car use site in Exeter. The area alongside the railtracks is levelled out, foundations have gone in and two large blocks of what will be built here are already up and close to be finished. We can discuss the architecture and the impact on the local area.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Please be aware that the meeting will start a bit earlier at 10:45, with the welcome to our new Exeter MP. Shortly after 11.00 Alan Caig will talk about the 'History of Theatre in Exeter'.
The AGM is a chance for members to hold the Executive to account and issues to be raised regarding the running of the Society.
This is an opportunity for members to stand for election to the Committee for the following year. This event is for paid up members only and only they will be allowed to vote on any decisions taken.
David Solman will lead our November walk, through the scenic Exwick Cemetery - with stories about its history and its very old trees. Come and join us for a walk inside the boundaries of the cemetery, offering stunning views over Exeter. Appropriate footwear please, as we will walk on uneven paths and through grassy areas.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Stuart Blaylock from the 'Devon Archaeological Society' will speak about 'The History of Rougemont Castle'.
Do join us for a leisurely walk around the ‘wrong side of the river’ as St Thomas has been traditionally known to the locals. Find out some of the reasons why it may have been true and why those who live here don’t agree! We won’t have time to cover the whole area but will include several varying sites of interest. Wendy Rakestrow will lead this walk, which will come in several loops, so if you do not want to do the whole walk you can drop out earlier.
Our blue plaque to Dr Margaret Jackson, a pioneer of fertility treatment and family planning from the 1930s, will be unveiled at 14:00 on Saturday 28 September at the Margaret Jackson Centre, 4 Barnfield Hill, Exeter, EX1 1SR. The plaque will be unveiled at 14:00, followed by tea and talks from 14:30 at the Barnfield Theatre EX1 1SN. Space is limited, especially at the theatre, so please let Hilary Neville know if you would like to attend – hneville.ecs@btinternet.com.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Devon Gardens Trust seeks to promote and protect Devon’s designed landscape heritage – its parks, gardens and cemeteries of special historic interest – for future generations. It works with owners, managers and local authorities to ensure that those gardens, parks and cemeteries of special historic importance are recognised and conserved. Dianne Long, a former Trust chair, will take us through the work of the Trust and focus on the history and conservation of some of the important historic parks, gardens and cemeteries in and around Exeter.
Gert Vonhoff will lead a walk along the Exeter City Walls where we can talk a bit about how this defining structure has developed over time and in which state it is today.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Richard Holloday will speak about 'Exeter Retailing 1880-1940'.
Our July walk will take us 'Around Topsham', 3.5 miles in length. Meet at Holman Way at 2pm on Wednesday 3 July for a tour of some lesser known parts of Topsham. Jim Perriam will lead the walk, which will stick to the ground and not provide you with the lofty shot from above. So you all should feel safe to come and enjoy a summer afternoon out.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11 am John Davidson will give a presentation on 'Exeter Floods - Past, Present and Future'.
Saturday and Sunday (8-9 June) sees the Exeter Heritage Harbour Festival coming back. We will have a stall on Sunday in the Piazza Terracina, show-casing what we are doing and running a competition testing your knowledge of Exeter Sites which are of specific interest to our Society. If you are really good, you may even win one of our prizes, good luck. So please join us down by the Basin and have a good time. All on 'Steam Sunday' - so full steam ahead!
Our June walk will be the delayed one for May, and will be a circular walk taking us from Countess Wear to Heavitree and back: incorporating Duckes Meadow, Northbrook Park, Ludwell Valley and parts of Whipton. Let us hope we have walking weather and all will be fit to go!
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
Many people rely on Stagecoach buses, but they are not always reliable. More people would use them if they were and so reduce the amount of traffic on the road.
But running a bus service and making it reliable isn't an easy task.
At 11a.m. Peter Knight, Managing Director Stagecoach South West, will talk about the challenges of running the service and the bus station.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. Martin Watts will give a presentation on Exe Island Mills.
This was too ambitious, given the weather we recently have had. Jim checked the paths for us and it is way too muddy. So we will have to reschedule this walk for a dryer time. We are currently thinking whether we can put something else in place for 3 April, so watch the site! Original announcement: April and high time for getting out: this time we want to explore Exeter's northern border with a country walk, mostly on paths and bridleways. Bring firm footwear. We hope to see lots of wild flowers and maybe the odd other wild life as well.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. Cllr Anne Jobson will talk on 'History, Height and Heritage - How to Build a Modern City'. The image in this advert is not linked to Cllr Jobson's talk, but shows a current proposal for heights in the city centre.
Our walk will start and finish at the Guildhall and will be about 3 Miles. It will include St Nicholas Priory, the Medieval bridge, the suspension bridge, the Quay and parts of the riverbank.
Interested in planning issues but uncertain how the process works and how to take part? This is the meeting for you. Our members, Paul Barkley and Chris Dent, both planning experts, will host a presentation and teach-in which will bring you fully up to speed and enable you to have a say about planning issues in your street or neighbourhood and more widely across the City. Please let Keith Lewis know by email (keithatecs@gmail.com) if you wish to attend so we can manage numbers and send members any presentation materials in advance. Non members are welcome to attend if places are available so please send an email if you are interested.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. Dr Ian M. Varndell will inform us about the work of the Exeter Dissenters' Graveyard Trust.
Our February walk will be a circular one - to blow off any January cobwebs: through Exeter parks and along the river. It starts at the War Memorial in Northernhay Gardens, includes the Iron Bridge, Millenium Bridge, St Thomas pleasure gardens and Bury Meadow. Jim will lead us through interesting sites and provides us with some history.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. Exeter City Council Leader Cllr Phil Bialyk and Cllr Emma Morse will speak on the 'Full Draft of the Exeter Plan', the vision behind it, the current state of the document and how ECC will proceed from here.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. there will be our final talk for the year by Peter Stephenson on 'St. Petroc's Limited', Exeter's charity for people who are homeless or vulnerably housed.
Our next plaque will commemorate the novelist George Gissing, who lived in the city
between 1891 and 1893. The plaque will be unveiled at 11:00, at 25 Heavitree Road, EX1
2LG, by Professor Richard Dennis - all welcome. Afterwards we’ll have coffee at the cafe
at the Barnfield Theatre on Barnfield Road - a place visited by George Gissing many
times when it housed the Exeter Literary Society.
Please email Hilary Neville at hneville.ecs@btinternet.com if you plan to come along to the plaque unveiling, so that we have an idea of numbers.
The AGM is a chance for members to hold the Executive to account and issues to be raised regarding the running of the Society.
This is an opportunity for members to stand for election to the Committee for the following year. This event is for paid up members only and only they will be allowed to vote on any decisions taken.
Do you want to know Exeter's link to Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel? Then this talk about Exeter-born Fred Karno is for you.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment will be available.
At 11a.m. David Crump will talk about Fred Karno.
Our society is planning a guided visit to Exeter's Tuckers Hall in Fore Street. We will need a minimum of 8 people who want to go. The costs will be £5 per person, including refreshments. If you are interested, please contact Andy McKeon under andy.mckeon@btinternet.com.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11a.m. Exeter City Councillors Diana Moore and Carol Bennett from the Green Party will start us off in a series of talks looking into what travelling within Exeter in the 21st century could look like. Be prepared for some creative thinking and suggestions which might help change your travel habits and prompt system change.
Jim Perriam (with Lynn Hornblower) will lead a walk through the Flow Orchards.
Lynn Hornblower will lead a walk through Newtown, our second effort after the first one on 9 May ended in a rain storm.
The Civic Society and Topsham Museum’s blue plaque to Dick Pym will be unveiled at 12 noon on Monday 31 July on Ferry Road on the wall directly below Topsham Parish Church.
As a follow-up to Darren Stockley's talk on 15 July 2023, Exeter Civic Society is invited to visit the anearobic energy plant of Gorst Energy.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11a.m. Darren Stockley, Managing Director of Gorst Energy, will give an informative talk on how its anaerobic digestion (AD) facility located in Clyst St Mary has been providing renewable gas and electricity to Exeter and East Devon since 2015.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11a.m. Dr Julia Neville will talk about 1920s Exeter.
Mary Patricia Willcocks (1869-1952), author, lecturer and suffrage activist: a Celebration and Plaque Unveiling
Our Society will run a stall on Sunday at the Exeter Heritage Harbour Festival in May 2023. We will inform about our aims, work and recent campaigns. Meet members from our Blue Plaque team. Look through our booklets.
An evening to welcome our new members and for them to meet us. Invitation only. You will be invited by email.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11a.m. Dr Suaad Genem-George, Chair/Managing Director of the Exeter Respect Festival will talk about their festival and how it has developed over the years.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11a.m. Exeter Harbour Master Grahame Forshaw will talk about the 'Exeter City Canal'.
A walk through the Wider Water Lane Area will reopen our walks again. Keith Lewis and Gert Vonhoff will guide members through the three different plots for developments in this area, explain what is planned and the challenges. We will illustrate on this walk what our 'Prospectus' from last autumn was dealing with, and provide some insights into the history of this area. A few traces of its industrial past are still on display, the rest will have to be imagined on the basis of maps and old photos.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshments provided.
At 11am Tom Woodman, Cornerstone Housing, will give a talk about 'Current and Future Issues for Housing Associations in Exeter'.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshments provided.
At 11 am our chairman and planning group colleagues will talk about current planning issues.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshment provided.
At 11am Richard Holladay will give a talk about his grandfather entitled 'Charles Newton Lovely & the Exeter Workmen's Dwellings Company'.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshments provided.
At 11am our well known member, Redcoat Guide and Cathedral Guide, Mike Richards will give a talk entitled "Humour in the Police (A personal perspective)".
The AGM is a chance for members to hold the Executive to account and issues to be raised regarding the running of the Society.
This walking tour is led by our very experienced Red Coat and Cathedral Guide Mike Richards and is entitled Cathedral Close, it's secrets and curiosities.
A day in celebration of the Society's Diamond Jubilee. Come along to either the morning or afternoon session to find out more about the Society and how you can get involved.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshments provided. At 11am our Chairman Keith Lewis will give us a round up of recent Planning Decisions and ask for your thoughts on them.
A social event where visitors and guests are welcome and refreshments provided. At 11am Lucy Mottram will give us a talk on Devon & Exeter Waste Management.