Name Index

to

Armorial Bearings at the "Abbot's Lodge", The Close, Exeter

Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries 9:2, (1916), illus., pp. 97-99.

by

Thomas Grace

Prepared by Michael Steer

It seems unlikely that the Abbots of Buckfast ever used their Lodge on a regular basis. It is cited as belonging to the abbots in a document from 1431. It seems more likely that the property was let by the abbey to various members of the clergy associated with Exeter Cathedral. At either end of the principal apartment in the Lodge, in the spandrels above the springing of the roof, were three plasterwork heraldic decorations which depicted the coats of arms of various local families as well as a fourth depicting the Royal arms of Elizabeth I. These are the focus of Grace's Note. In May 1942, Exeter suffered a heavy air-raid and the Abbot's Lodge received a direct hit from a high-explosive bomb. Four people in the building at the time were killed and the Abbot's Lodge, including the decorative plasterwork, was totally destroyed. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. The copy of this rare book is held in the Library of Arthur William Bryant Messenger, and is available from the Internet Archive.