Around the Close

Today, we (finally) took the Around the Close tour. At first, it was just us and the tour guide. Actually, the tour guide almost missed us altogether. She was roaming around the area where tours assemble, and there were a lot of people around, but none appeared to be interested in a tour. I had to actually stop her and say "Hey, are you doing a tour this afternoon?" to keep her from walking off. However, once she realized she had a couple of people to tour, she assembled us and began the tour. Because we confirmed that we had both been on a tour (several) before, she skipped the obligatory disclaimer of responsibility and the "Potted History of Exeter." Shortly after discussing the development of the Cathedral Close (the bit about the murder of a cleric from the Catacombs tour), she found that she had a third person lingering at the rear of the group. The guide apologized profusely to her new group member, and the three of us followed our guide around the rest of the tour.

After completing the introduction to the Close and a quick discussion of Hooker's statue, we proceeded, literally, around the Close. We began with the Royal Clarence Hotel, then proceeded to Mol's Coffee Shop (which, it turns out, is named after an artist named Mol, who once had a studio there) and then along to the ecclesiastical homes along the east side of the Close. We, once again, had the opportunity to walk into the courtyard at the Minister of Music's house, only this time we were allowed to walk into the rear portion of the courtyard. Incidentally, in the Dean's House window, we were able to see one of the Dean's children, who waved at us before darting away from the window. We also met one of the Dean's cats, who was roaming about the Close near the East Gate.

After we saw the East Gate, we proceeded back up into the Close to the north side of the cathedral, and discussed several aspects of the cathedral (also covered in the Heart of Exeter tour, among others). As we worked our way around the front of the cathedral, we found out that the statue of Peter at the very top of the front is actually well over six feet tall. He doesn't look it from the ground, but apparently he's about twice life size! While in front of the cathedral, we discussed the demolition of St. Mary Major in the 1970s (a Victorian church on the site of an old Saxon church) and the discovery of the old Roman Baths under the church. The baths in Exeter are reportedly larger than the ones in Bath; however, the Exeter City Council didn't have enough money in the 1970s to excavate them (as no one in the UK had any money in the 1970s), and the baths were re-covered with sand, as they remain today. Several proposals have been floated for partial excavation that could be covered with glass to be viewable from the open space at the cathedral's West Front.

From the West Front, we moved around to the south courtyard of the cathedral, and discussed the development of the cloisters there. The Exeter Cathedral, unlike most cathedrals, was not developed as the abbey of a religious order. Instead, the cloisters were built as housing for members of the cathedral clergy, which is how they survived the reign of Henry VIII. However, they did not survive the reign of Cromwell, and were demolished in the 1650s. Proposals to rebuild them in the ensuing 450 years have never been realized, although they were almost rebuilt during the repair of the bomb damage to the south side of the cathedral after World War II. 

After the south side of the cathedral, we moved toward the west side of the Close, passing the old Deanery and then passing through the Close's West Gate (not to be confused with the City's West Gate) into South Street, which forms the west side of the Close. We worked our way back up (north) on South Street, passing several items of note (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Oxfam, the cathedral school, etc) before returning to the close through the gate at the top of South Street. This was the end of the tour. We went on to Edinburgh Woolen Mill, and then attempted to get ice cream at McDonalds, but their ice cream machine was still out of order! Maybe another day . . .