Going Underground in Exeter in Devon, Exeter, England

Hard hat on head I followed our guide, Helen, into the underground passages that stretched for over four hundred metres under the historic city of Exeter. These underground passages in Exeter in Devon were built during the fourteenth and fifteenth century to house the lead piping that carried fresh water from St Sidwell’s wellsr outside the city to the cathedral. They have actually been accessible to the public since 1932 but the only entrance was through a man-hole cover and down a spiral staircase - the same entrance the workmen would have used. Devoid of their pipes, which were used to make bullets during the First World War, they were used as air raid shelters during the Second World War. Today visitors enter the underground passages through a modern visitor centre where they can see a replica of a small section of a passage and learn about the history. Also on display are some fascinating sketches of some iconic buildings in the city as they would have appeared hundreds of years ago.

The underground passages were not tunnelled. A deep trench was dug, and the sides were lined with stone blocks. The lead pipes were laid along the floor and the passages were capped with a vaulting stone and then filled in. Man-holes constructed at intervals along the route of the passages allowed easy access. Drinking water from the pipes came from fountains called conduits. St Peter’s Conduit was a stone building in Cathedral Close near the West Front of the Cathedral. The city was suppled through the Great Conduit which stood at the top of Fore Street (the Carnac). This was such an important building that when King Henry VI visited Exeter in 1451 it was decorated with rich cloth and wine flowed from the fountain. Sadly, both have been destroyed. For hundreds of years the city maintained and improved the existing passages and built new ones if they had enough money. The final brick built section dates from the late eighteenth century. Around 425 metres of passages were built for the cathedral and city supplies and eighty per cent of them are still there today. Exploring them with Helen gave me a great insight into the history of Exeter - and if was fun too. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).