35.     George Oliver / John Leland                                    1850 (1600)

 


The Reverend George Oliver was both Catholic priest and Exeter historian. He was born at Newington, Surrey in 1781 and was promoted to holy orders and moved to Exeter to the mission of the Society of Jesus at St. Nicholas in 1807. He retired in 1851 but continued to live in the priory until his death in 1861. He wrote numerous works on the history of Devon, the church and the catholic faith in the west. Probably while researching for material for a second edition of his History of Exeter (first published 1821) he came across two early plans of the castle which he then included in an essay in The Archaeological Journal of June 1850[1]. The first was a manuscript plan (the original 480 x 480 mm) in the British Library which was for a long time thought to be by John Leland, the antiquarian and poet who visited Exeter in 1542[2] and a second plan attributed to John Norden (see next entry).

Title: GROUND PLAN OF EXETER CASTLE above plan and below From an Original Survey in the reign of Henry VIII Preserved in the British Museum.

Size: 110 x 115 mm. No signature. An indication of scale is shown by 300 paces across courtyard. 

It shows the old Norman entry, closed up in late medieval time, as the Ould Port, and beside it ye latter port, where Castle Street ends today. Opposite, across the court, are the ould and latter sally ports. It shows the escarpment and the ditch, but it shows no buildings within the court and only suggests King John’s bastion and Athelstan’s tower.

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[1] The Archaeological Journal for the Encouragement and Prosecution into the Arts and Monuments of the Early and Middle Ages published by the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland June 1850 as part of Volume VII.

[2] It was described as “Temp. Henry VIII” but Peter Barber of the Map Library has suggested a date closer to 1600 based on the style of hand-writing (i.e. 50 years after Leland’s death).

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