EVERY TOWN HAS NOT ITS NORNEY, EXETER, before 1814.

In the diaries of Samuel Curwen, an American loyalist taking refuge in England at the time of the War of Independence, (1775 to 1783) we learn that, during his stay in Exeter, he enjoyed taking walks on Norney.  

Norney, of course, is Northernhay.  It is a fine example of Devon elision.   Just as Exeter is Exter, Topsham is Topsam, Lympstone is Limson  so Northernhay is Norney .  

 In The Derby Mercury of 1st December, 1785 and in most of the papers nationwide. was this remarkable report:

"There is now living at Norney, near the city of Exeter, one John Follart, a Woolcomber, who is now in the 121st Year of his Age; this Prodigy of old Age works at his Business, retains all his Faculties, and was in good Health on Wednesday last."

I doubt that the remarkable John Follart  was quite that old,  In some of the papers he was not 121 but 124.  Just like today, the newspapers did not necessarily let the truth rob them of a good story.

It seems clear that the contracted name was not just a familiar nickname;  Norney, was used on formal occasions:  In The Morning Chronicle 12th December, 1803, was this wedding notice:

"MARRIED: On Saturday,  H.T. Cooper, Esq. to Miss Eliabeth Anne Bailey, niece to James Bailey, Esq. of Norney House, near Exeter."

When, in 1802,  Robert Southey, not yet the poet-laureate, came to Exeter, he was much impressed by the Gardens:

"Close to our inn is the entrance of the Norney or public walk.  The trees are elms, and have attained their full growth; indeed I have never seen a finer walk; but every town has not its Norney... I was shown a garden, unique in its kind, which has been made in the old castle ditch.  The banks rise steeply on each side; one of the finest poplars in the country grows in the bottom and scarcely overtops the ruined wall.  Jackson, one of the most accomplished men of his age, directed these improvements; and never was accident more happily improved."   (my emphasis)

(Source: Robert Southey (under the sobriquet, Espriella),  Letters from England , Longman 1814. 3rd edition - the letter dated,  Sunday, April 24, 1802.)

Southey had clearly passed from Northernhay into Rougemont Gardens, something which nowadays it is impossible to do. This is because a philistine City Council, which does not value Exeter's unique inheritance, Northernhay Gardens , as a public walk, has blocked the way.  It is a council which is happier locking up,  blocking up, fencing off, closing down and generally neglecting the Gardens while at the same time renting them out to short-term, incoming, polluting, destructive and vulgar events, the organising of which has  involved long periods when the elegant neglected, ironwork gates have quite simply been locked against the people.  

It is shameful that old Norney has not been freely available to the citizens of Exeter and to visitors for more than a quarter of the past year. 

One can only hope that the time will come when a wiser city council will realise that the Gardens properly cared for, controlled and imaginatively improved, perhaps by someone to sort them out like that accomplished Jackson of the eighteenth century, would attract  visitors from all over the country and beyond and add to the prosperity and reputation of this once dignified and proud city.