The Form & Growth of the City

After the vigorous growth of the 10th and 11th centuries, Exeter experienced a prolonged period of more modest success in the later middle ages. Nevertheless it functioned as a regional centre for much of Devon and Somerset, with its markets and fairs, town crafts and foreign trade.

Exeter was also an important centre of the church, with its cathedral, monasteries, friaries, and hospitals, in addition to its thirty parish churches.