oldexeterinnChurch House. Brew House. Ale House. Public House
This old building has been a workhorse of happiness through the centuries. And we love her!
To step across the threshold of the Old Exeter Inn is to step into living history, to drink under the same roof as pirates, adventurers, explorers, writers, reeves, coachmen, highwaymen, gentry, prisoners of war; and of course, the parson, the baker and the proverbial candlestick maker.
The very fabric of the inn provokes the imagination and leaves one to wonder at the tales the walls could tell, tales that are guarded by the inn’s resident curator and cat, Witherington. He knows that the English public house is the great leveller. Anyone and everyone are welcome beneath the lintel to drink, make merry and leave their memories behind. And after nearly nine hundred years they still do. Every day.
The origins of the inn lie in the relationship between the sacred and profane, being built to house the workers who constructed St. Andrew’s Church almost exactly opposite. It is the oldest building in this ancient Stannary Town and is very likely to be the fifth oldest inn in the British Isles.
Once the church was finished, the builders moved out and the brewers moved in. By then Ashburton (the town’s name derives from Old English meaning a farm or settlement with a stream frequented by ash trees) was growing, and ‘Ale Wardens’ lived and worked here. They were employed by St. Andrew’s, collecting money from the parishioners to finance the brewing of ale, which was then sold at a profit for repairs to the church, bells and to help the needy. What a great concept! You ‘tax’ your local population to make a product they want to drink and then charge them for it in the pub later. Don’t tell today’s Government. It might give the faux Puritans a new idea. Mind you, they couldn’t tax this modern industry any harder even if they tried. The poor old publicans of nowadays are real-life ‘Ale Wardens’ (except we don’t see any profit).
This building started its life in the business of ‘beer’ and continues in that trade to this very day. An uninterrupted supply of hospitality for all people. Evolving through nine centuries.
Beer was an integral part of daily life in Britain. Not just as a drink to make life a little more bearable, but it was a valuable source of nourishment too. Beer was also far more reliable than drinking water at the time, especially in a growing community where water purity was a real problem. Turn the water into beer, and you have a safe, everyday drink. For centuries, it would be drunk by everyone, including small children, and was served even at breakfast (small beer). A happy thought indeed!
At this time, the inn was formally known as the Church House. Accounts discovered from 1479-1580 record receipts from the sale of ale and brewing in the Church House and also record details of rent and listed expenses for repairs. In 1491-92 there are expenses ‘for laths and lathenayle [nails] for the Church House – 14 1/2d’.
What is it like inside the Old Exeter Inn behind the scenes?
“There is not a single straight wall or level ceiling anywhere in the building. The stairs go one way then another, step by step. Floors creak and are uneaven. When there is a gale raging outside, the very top floor feels like a being aboard a ship in a storm! Where tall Georgian rooms have been made, small, low-ceilinged rooms are next door. There are large old fireplaces and walls that you can simply not fathom out why they are there. In the upper middle of the building there is a Tudor era wall that might have been a new gable end? Everything is in the wrong place and that’s a cause of time. Change. Addition. Progress. It is the oddest building but has the deepest soul. It has been a workhorse of happiness through the centuries. And we love her”.
– David Hattersley
The Church House Inn then became the Exeter Inn to reflect the increasing influence and importance of the Bishops of Exeter who held sway from Devon to Cornwall, following the appointment of Leofric as the first Bishop of Exeter in the reign of Edward the Confessor. By the way, whilst you are here and if you need to confess (a neighbour of ours should do that every single day), there is even a Confessional to do it in! Why not take a pint in with you to ease the pain?
A Georgian facelift
Our medieval ale house was given a new frontage and raised roof in Georgian times (around 1750). However, much of the original interior remained in place and still does, including the large granite chimneypiece with its chamfered lintel on big round corbels.
It is officially classed as a two-roomed cross passage or direct entry storeyed house! As recently as 1913, horses were led through the front door of the inn to the rear stables where our Walled Apothecary Garden is now. There are small, dark rooms with low ceilings to the front and back of the inn, including a parlour and a now a tap room, which hold memories of those long gone, those forgotten and those who remain bound up in the story of this island.
The 1900’s
The layout of the inn has changed over the years. There were several rooms. A Lounge in the back room (now the Parlour) with an interconnecting hatch to the main Bar and then a Bar of its own in the 1970’s. A Bar and Bottle Shop at the front. The shop was a hatch in the corridor that was used as a ‘takeaway’ for beer and cider from the corridor. This is currently where the Bar is but with that room walled off with a door. You would often bring your own bottle to be refilled. There was also a TV room in the 1960’s (this is now where the Snug is). The building was extended to the rear in the 1990’s. The Old Exeter Inn carried out its basic function as an inn providing food, drink and a comfortable bed for the night.
A living, breathing place
It must be said that buildings like these are never ‘pickled in time’. They are living, breathing things that evolve and should be loved and cared for. Ours is part-pickled we must confess! Pickled in Old.
