Ireland and UK Holiday 2015, 11th June

Topsham in Devon

Family history day, Lyn research time at Devon Family History Society rooms in Exeter (short train ride from Topsham). She is checking out my dad's Parsons family background and ancestors as they sprung from the very small town of Lympstone near Exmouth, but the available records fizzle out around 1750 or so and we can't see further back than that.

After lunch we did some limited wandering in Exeter, nice town, busy but not hectic. We'll go back again tomorrow to see things we missed today, like the shops where my ancestors worked or owned at various stages in the past.

First pic is a find, not my family, but what the heck, a path in Topsham leading towards the railway station.....



Catch the train from Topsham to Exeter, a little two car diesel set, well used as empty seats hard to find.....



Nice pasty lunch from this shop........



The cathedral here is creakingly old and chock full of history, original Normal towers (started 1114) and the rest rebuilt in the
period between 1270 and 1350. The Black Death intervening and stalling progress as Exeter was very badly hit due to the disease being spread by visiting sailors and rats from the ships. The population at the time of the Plague in 1348 was 3,000 and of those 1,900 died. So the town fell apart. Anyway, here is the front of the cathedral, as usual some scaffolding, it does need a lot of stone to be replaced.....



Inside it is even more impressive, the longest continuous medieval stone vault in the world at 315 feet, 96 metres. Other interiors may be longer but they are broken by central towers, this one has the towers off to the sides......



Lots of old dudes resting here for eternity.......



I'll finish today with an old shop front, no idea of how old, may find out more tomorrow when we revisit Exeter.......