St Sidwells

File:St Sidwell - geograph.org.uk - 351497.jpg

Relief of St Sidwell, on Sidwell St, St Sidwells

St Sidwells is an area east of Exeter city centre in the ward of Newtown. Formerly a village in its own right, St Sidwells grew in importance along with Exeter thanks to its location on the main cart track between Exeter and the high ground of Stoke Hill and the rich farmland of East Devon.

History

The springs of St Sidwells were tapped by the Romans for the needs of the city and their water piped via wooden aqueducts to supply their citadel. This system became the underground passages of the 13th century and was only turned off in 1902. The settlement's current name derives from Saint Sidwell, a devout young girl who was beheaded by her father’s farm labourers in fields outside the East gate at a site where a spring was struck and miracles began to occur.

In popular culture

The parish is mentioned in an 1865 edition of Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round:

There was a remote parish—that of St. Sidwell’s—the claims of whose “boys” to the right of citizenship were doubtful. They were contumaciously called Grecians; but the parish being large, and its warriors numerous, the citizen lads were accustomed to combine against “the outer barbarians,” and the battles raged furiously, and black eyes and bloody noses were left to exhibit the results of the fray.

— Anonymous, Exeter Sixty Years Ago. All the Year Round October 28, 1865; volume 14 number 340 page 320

Sources

Evidence Base: Exeter St. James Neighbourhood Plan