BECAUSE of a golf club event, Crediton Probus Club President, Gerald Hill, opened proceedings for the September meeting half-an-hour late at Downes Crediton Golf Club. A rather mixed bag of showery weather brought just 23 members to the meeting.

Grace was given by John Marshall.

The president then asked Brian Healey to introduce our speaker, Lesley Moss, City Guide of Exeter, cathedral guide and operator of town walks for Exeter U3A.

Lesley began by telling us that many cities, at home and abroad, offer free tours for tourists but very few offer the diversity of tours that guides in Exeter have been giving for more than 30 years.

There are now more than 20 themed tours. The guides’ red outfits are most distinctive. During summer months, guides offer at least three (and up to five) tours daily.

Most tours start from outside the Royal Clarence Hotel (a couple from outside the Custom House Visitor Centre on the Quayside).

City tours, which started in 1987, were the idea of Exeter historian, Peter Thomas. Guides were initially paid, but in 1995 the number of weekly tours was down to six so Peter initiated the current group of unpaid guides which has expanded down the years.

The service is financed by Exeter City Council. Training takes five months and guides have a lively social programme that includes socials, talks and coach trips. Private tours can be arranged at £4 per head.

Lesley is also an official cathedral guide (additionally offering roof tours) and in a more recent project, researches the histories of diverse local towns and villages and then gives tours of these to members of Exeter U3A (University of the Third Age). These have included visits to Chulmleigh, Belstone and Crediton.

Marshalling any tour group, with a probable diversity of ages and physical abilities, is a real challenge. There is a “comfortable party size” and in most circumstances groups of more than say 15 people would be nearly impossible to manage in a city.

In concluding her talk she told us a little-known Exeter secret, namely that Charles the First’s daughter, Henrietta Anne (sister of Charles the Second) was born in Bedford House (destroyed in the Baedeker raid of May 1942) - the exact site of her birth being just outside the present menswear department of Debenhams!

Raymond King thanked Lesley for a very interesting talk and the meeting closed with a toast “to the next time”.

KB