Issue 38 Summer web 23 - Flipbook - Page 27
Working to Welcome:
Exeter Cathedral Embarks
on Biggest Building Project
in More Than a Century
Exeter Cathedral is embarking on its most significant
building project for over a hundred years in an effort to
preserve the ancient building for generations to come.
The ambitious development project is designed to secure
a more sustainable future for the cathedral by attracting
more people, providing a better visitor experience, and
engaging local communities.
The new construction is being built on the foundations
of the cathedral’s original medieval cloisters, which were
demolished in the mid-17th century. The cloisters were
replaced with houses (known locally as ‘miserable hovels’)
which were also demolished, in the early 19th century.
Exeter Cathedral’s new Cloister Gallery will be its first
major construction since the late 19th century.
Funded by Exeter Cathedral’s 2020s Development
Appeal, the project has already attracted a £4.3 million
grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and
a further £1.9 million from other grant-giving trusts,
foundations, corporate and private donors.
Archaeological investigations carried out ahead of the
build have reveled new discoveries from the Roman
period. The new clues to Exeter’s distant past include
remains of an early Roman street and timber buildings, and
the wall of a Roman town house that was later overlain by
the foundations of the cathedral’s medieval cloisters.
The first phase of the project began in November 2022
in the cathedral’s Cloister Garden, where specialist
building teams, led by principal contractor Sally Strachey
Historic Conservation, began a two-year project to
recreate a new Cloister Gallery.
Cathedral Archaeologist, John Allan, says the finds help
to build a clearer picture of how the site would have
looked in Roman times:
Below, Work has started in the Quire to make it a safer and more comfortable place for services, community gatherings and events and
improve the sustainability of the cathedral. Image Credit: Acanthus Clews Architects/Marvin Chik