@@thra5herxb12s Same here! Although I now live in another country I will always treasure Exeter as being my real home where I was born and attended school.
Believe me, you are better off where you are. Exeter is now a filthy city, overrun by homeless and druggies. The streets are filthy and nearly all our loved independent shops are closed!
The Philistines that destroyed our historic towns packed there kids of to see Vienna , Paris, and Rome.Yes! They came back to England with pictures of ancient beautiful city’s and monuments. So proud we’re the councillors, there children had tasted other cultures. I witnessed this as a boy in the 60s, and I detested modern buildings then as now.The towns that get packed with tourists are the ones that kept there Dignitie .
Thanks for such an awesome video... showing so much of our past... wonderfully put together Dean and much appreciate your time and effort... absolute must to see especially in 2021 when the town centre is again going into meltdown! Thanks again, health and happiness always to you and all who watch 🌟🤗🌟🖖
I fell in love with Exeter as a student in the 1970s. It's a shame how much must have been destroyed in the war and replaced with acres of anodyne 1950s/60s blocks
The rebuilding of Exeter after the war took 25 years to complete The budget was small at the time, hence the blocky featureless of many of the buildings. Some have recently demolished and replaced with higher quality buildings . . .
OBVIOUSLY, I KNEW EXETER WAS ANCIENT, EVEN WHEN I DROVE THROUGH IT ON MY WAY TO HOLIDAYS IN THE 1970'S , I COULD SEE THAT, BUT, THANKS TO THESE MARVELOUS IMAGES, I'M SADDEND TO SEE JUST HOW MUCH WAS DESTROYED, BY WHATEVER CAUSE. SHOSTAKOVICH DIDN'T HELP EITHER.
Yes Exeter is much older than the Roman period as it was the nearest place to the sea that the River Exe could be crossed and, Dartmoor was the most densely populated stone age area in Britain. The ancient Ridgeway crosses the South from East to West.
With that Asylum that is shown in the video (where you have the crowd of people posing for the photo by the door) I actually live in the estate that was built on the land that once belonged to it. I've grown up seeing it as this old marvel of a place, and to see such an old photo of it, it's both amazing to see a glimpse into its past, and creepy, to be reminded of what that beautiful building once was.
I walked around the old place when it was being redeveloped. The asylum used to have its own railway line running to it. The avocet line it was called.
@@thra5herxb12s Do you know if there are any old photos of that stretch of the line? I know there used to be two tracks on the Avocet line, and now there's only one, except through Topsham, but I've never managed to figure out where the track to the hospital actually was (I'm guessing now under the houses), and I've never found any photo's of the asylum with it in.
I worked in the hospital for a couple of years in the early 80s. At that time, the times and practices had moved on from the Victorian treatments and approaches I'm pleased to say.
@@arthurmee Funnily enough, since I posted that original comment 3 years ago, I've since carried out quite extensive research into the history of Digby Hospital. I have been lucky enough to work with a local charity that operate out of the former medical superintendents residence, and have had various displays of my research there. Annoyingly records from Digby post 1960 seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth, so I know very little of the Hospital's operations and general history during your time there in the 80's. Would you be willing to share any of your experiences there?
@@thra5herxb12s Quick update. I've done some very extensive research these last few years into Digby, and can now confirm what the railway line you mentioned was. It wasn't the avocet line, technically. While the avocet line (then the L&SWR branch line from Queen street/Exeter Central station to Exmouth), it was actually a temporary branch that ran to the hospital, off of the now avocet line. The city authorities who ran the hospital at the time, made an agreement with the L&SWR to build a short branch to the site of the hospital (specifically to where the recreation hall would later stand) and this would be used to bring in construction materials for actually building the hospital, however it was torn up as soon as hospital opened in 1886. Around the same time as the construction, the L&SWR would build a small siding for the hospital, a few hundred metres before the current Newcourt site. I've found records of this siding being used until the late 1950's, to bring coal to the hospital. There was also the original Digby station, then called Clyst St Mary and Digby Halt, opened in 1908, though that station was seldom used, and was eventually closed for good in 1948.
Now it's an absolute dump, with violent crime, drugs, drunks and a local council that's allowed it to run into the ground for decades. Exeter used to be a beautiful place.
@@Emma-pl9gt Sorry to read that Exeter has gone down hill. I was born there in 1962 at Exeter Hospital but actually lived in Dawlish. Back when I was a child growing up in the Sixties and early Seventies my Family and I visited Exeter on a regular basis because some of our family lived there and we sometimes go shopping there. Our School West Cliff Junior School even visited the Roman Ruins on an excursion back in 1972. I always remembered Exeter as being a Smart, Tidy Place with lots of Ancient Buildings. Last time I visited was 1982 after living in Australia for nine years. Even then it was ok but appeared tired and a bit neglected. I lived in Tasmania now and we have an Exeter here but its a small town not a city.😊
@@thra5herxb12s Never mind the critics, the music was very well chosen. You did very well with the means available to you and I thank you again for it. I would likely never have seen those images without this video.
Do you mean Bedford Circus that is now Bedford street. It suffered very minor damage during the blitz but the council had other plans in mind for the area.
@@thra5herxb12s Thats it, Bedford Circus. Looked amazing, such a shame. Cultural vandalism it was called when they demolished them..i've only been living in Exeter for a few
@@lenkiewitcz Try joining the Exeter Memories facebook page. Some of the members can remember getting bombed during the war, and the amount of local knowledge thats on there is incredible, and a wealth of old photographs that arent seen anywhere else.
I wish it was still this way. It's now home to homeless drug users and anti social behaviour. The streets are absolutely filthy. It's so bad, I've written to the council and Ben Breadshaw. Exeter is a total dive and not how you knew it. South Street and Sidwell Street are the worst! I don't leave my house after 6pm. You really don't wish you still lived here, believe me. I've lived here since 1973 - grew up in St Thomas and have lived in the St Jamescarea since 1992. I've witnessed the dramatic decline. Its a vile place nowadays.
What a Shame! I was born there in 1962 but lived in Dawlish from 1962 to 1973 then we moved to Brisbane Australia in 1973. I still have good memories of the City. I last visited Exeter in 1982.😊
Our wonderful City!❤
Great video.. Exeter, England's finest city
A City very close to my heart
@@thra5herxb12s Same here! Although I now live in another country I will always treasure Exeter as being my real home where I was born and attended school.
Believe me, you are better off where you are. Exeter is now a filthy city, overrun by homeless and druggies. The streets are filthy and nearly all our loved independent shops are closed!
Lovely city, my home birth place.
The Philistines that destroyed our historic towns packed there kids of to see Vienna , Paris,
and Rome.Yes! They came back to England with pictures of ancient beautiful city’s and monuments.
So proud we’re the councillors, there children had tasted other cultures.
I witnessed this as a boy in the 60s, and I detested modern buildings then
as now.The towns that get packed with tourists are the ones that kept
there Dignitie .
This is so true 💖
Thanks for such an awesome video... showing so much of our past... wonderfully put together Dean and much appreciate your time and effort... absolute must to see especially in 2021 when the town centre is again going into meltdown! Thanks again, health and happiness always to you and all who watch 🌟🤗🌟🖖
Absolutely brilliant that these images have survived
Thank you for making this.
One word, criminal.
The royal Clarence hotel 😢
It was so sad watching it burn
I fell in love with Exeter as a student in the 1970s. It's a shame how much must have been destroyed in the war and replaced with acres of anodyne 1950s/60s blocks
The 1980s for me. The City has a soul that no other has, and it will be in my heart forever.
The rebuilding of Exeter after the war took 25 years to complete The budget was small at the time, hence the blocky featureless of many of the buildings. Some have recently demolished and replaced with higher quality buildings . . .
Beautiful city
Good stuff. I remember many of those shops.
thankyou for showing this it is a good memory for me I love Exeter city don't live there now but i will always remember the old town
Same as.
OBVIOUSLY, I KNEW EXETER WAS ANCIENT, EVEN WHEN I DROVE THROUGH IT ON MY WAY TO HOLIDAYS IN THE 1970'S , I COULD SEE THAT, BUT, THANKS TO THESE MARVELOUS IMAGES, I'M SADDEND TO SEE JUST HOW MUCH WAS DESTROYED, BY WHATEVER CAUSE. SHOSTAKOVICH DIDN'T HELP EITHER.
Yes Exeter is much older than the Roman period as it was the nearest place to the sea that the River Exe could be crossed and, Dartmoor was the most densely populated stone age area in Britain. The ancient Ridgeway crosses the South from East to West.
I remember going to see "Zulu" at the old ABC cinema - seen at 3.43 - with my late mother c1975.
Me too!
Went to see the exorcist in the ABC was born in exeter 1956 great to old photos well done lived in st Thomas
With that Asylum that is shown in the video (where you have the crowd of people posing for the photo by the door) I actually live in the estate that was built on the land that once belonged to it. I've grown up seeing it as this old marvel of a place, and to see such an old photo of it, it's both amazing to see a glimpse into its past, and creepy, to be reminded of what that beautiful building once was.
I walked around the old place when it was being redeveloped. The asylum used to have its own railway line running to it. The avocet line it was called.
@@thra5herxb12s Do you know if there are any old photos of that stretch of the line? I know there used to be two tracks on the Avocet line, and now there's only one, except through Topsham, but I've never managed to figure out where the track to the hospital actually was (I'm guessing now under the houses), and I've never found any photo's of the asylum with it in.
I worked in the hospital for a couple of years in the early 80s. At that time, the times and practices had moved on from the Victorian treatments and approaches I'm pleased to say.
@@arthurmee Funnily enough, since I posted that original comment 3 years ago, I've since carried out quite extensive research into the history of Digby Hospital. I have been lucky enough to work with a local charity that operate out of the former medical superintendents residence, and have had various displays of my research there. Annoyingly records from Digby post 1960 seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth, so I know very little of the Hospital's operations and general history during your time there in the 80's. Would you be willing to share any of your experiences there?
@@thra5herxb12s Quick update. I've done some very extensive research these last few years into Digby, and can now confirm what the railway line you mentioned was.
It wasn't the avocet line, technically. While the avocet line (then the L&SWR branch line from Queen street/Exeter Central station to Exmouth), it was actually a temporary branch that ran to the hospital, off of the now avocet line. The city authorities who ran the hospital at the time, made an agreement with the L&SWR to build a short branch to the site of the hospital (specifically to where the recreation hall would later stand) and this would be used to bring in construction materials for actually building the hospital, however it was torn up as soon as hospital opened in 1886. Around the same time as the construction, the L&SWR would build a small siding for the hospital, a few hundred metres before the current Newcourt site. I've found records of this siding being used until the late 1950's, to bring coal to the hospital. There was also the original Digby station, then called Clyst St Mary and Digby Halt, opened in 1908, though that station was seldom used, and was eventually closed for good in 1948.
Now it's an absolute dump, with violent crime, drugs, drunks and a local council that's allowed it to run into the ground for decades. Exeter used to be a beautiful place.
What the Luftwaffe didn’t destroy the local council did and continues to do so.
It has very sadly been happening for far too long. In this day and age we should know better than to destroy historic structures.
I was born in Exeter. So it's part of me for ever. But I no longer live in Britain anymore.
Lucky you!
@@Emma-pl9gt Sorry to read that Exeter has gone down hill. I was born there in 1962 at Exeter Hospital but actually lived in Dawlish. Back when I was a child growing up in the Sixties and early Seventies my Family and I visited Exeter on a regular basis because some of our family lived there and we sometimes go shopping there. Our School West Cliff Junior School even visited the Roman Ruins on an excursion back in 1972. I always remembered Exeter as being a Smart, Tidy Place with lots of Ancient Buildings. Last time I visited was 1982 after living in Australia for nine years. Even then it was ok but appeared tired and a bit neglected. I lived in Tasmania now and we have an Exeter here but its a small town not a city.😊
Some dates and a bit of info with the photos would have been good, the music was completly depressing but did appreciate the content overall.
I chose the music because it was sad and depressing.
@@thra5herxb12s Never mind the critics, the music was very well chosen. You did very well with the means available to you and I thank you again for it. I would likely never have seen those images without this video.
lovely choice of shostakovich to express the sense of poignant loss
Where were the circular houses to? The old bus St soon to be gone.
Do you mean Bedford Circus that is now Bedford street. It suffered very minor damage during the blitz but the council had other plans in mind for the area.
@@thra5herxb12s Thats it, Bedford Circus. Looked amazing, such a shame. Cultural vandalism it was called when they demolished them..i've only been living in Exeter for a few
@@lenkiewitcz Try joining the Exeter Memories facebook page. Some of the members can remember getting bombed during the war, and the amount of local knowledge thats on there is incredible, and a wealth of old photographs that arent seen anywhere else.
Too much distruction.
Even to this day when we all know better.
Hard to believe that the modern day $hitho£€ was once a beautiful cultural centre that rivalled York. What wasn't bombed was mostly demolished anyway.
So very true. The present day council is hell bent on destroying whats left.
And yet so much still recognisable today.
Someone shut that piano
Oh well, at least you identified the instrument.
I wish it was still this way.
It's now home to homeless drug users and anti social behaviour. The streets are absolutely filthy. It's so bad, I've written to the council and Ben Breadshaw. Exeter is a total dive and not how you knew it. South Street and Sidwell Street are the worst!
I don't leave my house after 6pm. You really don't wish you still lived here, believe me.
I've lived here since 1973 - grew up in St Thomas and have lived in the St Jamescarea since 1992. I've witnessed the dramatic decline. Its a vile place nowadays.
What a Shame! I was born there in 1962 but lived in Dawlish from 1962 to 1973 then we moved to Brisbane Australia in 1973. I still have good memories of the City. I last visited Exeter in 1982.😊