Todd Gray and Exeter

The Guildhall in the High Street is said to be one of the very oldest buildings in Exeter. It dates from about 1340 and is the oldest municipal building in the country. It has survived the Prayer Book Rebellion, the arrival of the Duke of Monmouth, several sieges and two world wars, the last of which saw several German raids and not a little destruction within several hundred feet of the Guildhall itself. It is therefore the ideal place for an exhibition entitled ‘Exeter in the 1940s’.

This exhibition is organised and sort of hosted by the legendary local historian Dr. Todd Gray, author of numerous books on Exeter and Devon history, mostly pictorial although all embellished by various accounts of travel and life throughout the county from various visitors over the past few hundred years. This includes Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe, of course. Todd Gray is undoubtedly the modern successor to the perhaps even more illustrious W G Hoskins, the brilliant academic of geology and geography who happened to write one of the finest books I have ever read, entitled simply Devon.

In recent times, the Exeter Local History Society have rightly seen fit to place, in tribute to this lesser known Exonian, a blue plaque on the wall outside the house in which he used to live, up on St. David’s Hill. To walk or drive past this blue plaque should for any Exonian be as poignant as an American citizen passing the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

I only chanced upon the exhibition as I was passing, on the way to Sainsbury’s in the Guildhall Shopping Centre. I saw something in the Express & Echo newspaper a few weeks ago about an exhibition but forget about it but I know it only runs for two or three days so I am lucky I found it. Also, the Guildhall is rarely open to the public so this is the ideal chance to kill two birds with one stone.

The Guildhall itself is famous for its colonnaded exterior, three arches covering a foyer marked by old flagstones and rendered the brilliant white Beer stone. The interior has an old wooden ceiling and various remarks on visits from the Queen and stuff like that. There are pennants, swords and other regalia hanging from the walls; this building and its contents are a symbol of Exeter and its national and local role down the years.

The exhibition has lots of little items like ration books, log books of air raids and stuff like that. But, what interests me are the maps of the air raid precautions and the damaged caused by the various raids on Exeter during the war. There is a vast civil defence service map on one table with the damaged areas highlighted in white. Also there is the famous book by Thomas Sharp, Exeter Phoenix, the post-war plan for the reconstruction of the city.

Also, there is Dr. Todd Gray himself. He now has a regular Saturday column in the Express & Echo, complete with a mug shot. But, in person, he is remarkably big – a good six foot two, at least, and well-built. Not your usual academic, more the appearance of a big American football player, as befits a man from North America. Exeter is very lucky that he chose to make the city his home and to devote his energies to its history and reputation.

He is sitting by the market stall near the entrance where all of his books are laid out, all for sale.

“I don’t suppose you can get a copy of that Thomas Sharp book any more, Exeter Phoenix?”

In hindsight, I feel slightly rude for not enquiring of any of his own books and not mentioning that I have one at home. I have read the brilliant 'East Devon' from his Travellers' Tales series and some of his other books, mostly in either Waterstones at Roman Gate (or Eastgate as it should properly be known) or Exeter Central Library. Indeed, I consulted the East Devon book for inspiration on my recent, mooted move to Honiton which, of course, I declined to undertake in the end. However, he is a charming, very personable man and seemed simply delighted that there was so much interest in his exhibition. He smiled a lot.

I am delighted to speak to Todd Gray particularly as I have a copy of one of his books at home ('Exeter Engraved: the secular city'). He tells me that you can get a copy in Exeter Rare Books, in the Guildhall Shopping Centre. 'You'll get it for about £5'. Thank you very much and off I go.

Briefly, at Exeter Rare Books – 12a The Guildhall, hidden away upstairs on the second level of the Guildhall Shopping Centre arcade, near the Queen Street entrance – there is an old man who could be Control (Cyril Cusack) in the Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He is the opposite of Todd Gray; very small, rather old yet very respectable in appearance. Like a college lecturer, he adjusts his glasses as he answers my query, taking a keen interest. He is every inch the personification of his own bookshop - an antique surrounded by the modern.

He says he has a copy of Exeter Phoenix. It is an amazing, incredible book. There are so many pictures, fold-out maps and plans of Exeter just after the war; the work that went into producing all of the architects’ plans and stuff is awesome. At £20, it is well beyond my resources, but I 'bookmark' the place and the book and hope one day to get my very own copy. I know I could spend five hours reading the book. Of course, none of the Thomas Sharp plans were ever taken up.

'It's a fantasy, you know', the bookseller assures me.

Although we must be grateful this plan was never carried out - Exeter would have become the Milton Keynes of Devon - the City Council did far more damage than ever the Germans did, desite the ridiculous propaganda of the Express & Echo which never fails in any edition to mention the 'blitz'. Dont' mention the war.