A NEW book by Dr Todd Gray MBE on the lost buildings of 19th-century Exeter has just been published.

This volume, a project with the Exeter Local History Society, outlines the city’s main reasons for loss.

The cover of Todd Gray’s new book ‘Exeter’s Lost Buildings’.
The cover of Todd Gray’s new book ‘Exeter’s Lost Buildings’. (Dr Todd Gray)

Unlike Crediton and Tiverton, where fire was the single most destructive factor, Exeter had other agencies.

An Improvement Commission was set up and became particularly active from 1833.

Hundreds of buildings were demolished in its drive to clean up the city.

However, Exeter was unique in having the Dean and Chapter pursue a programme of improvement of its own making in the cathedral precinct.

It destroyed some 50 buildings in an attempt to enhance views of the cathedral - it demolished important historic buildings which these men considered to be in the wrong place.

Dr Gray said: "The material surprised me.

"I hadn’t anticipated that the Dean and Chapter was so destructive and this shows how important stories about our past remain unknown.

"I cannot explain why no other historian has noticed this happening but what is clear is that building after building fell prey to men who wanted Exeter Cathedral to stand alone like Salisbury Cathedral”.

"Exeter’s Lost Buildings" is available at The Bookery or direct from: www.Stevensbooks.co.uk .