Water in the City

The book provides a richly illustrated history of Exeter's famous underground passages—and of the city's sophisticated system of public water supply during the medieval and early modern periods.  The aqueduct tunnels are a vivid testament to the skill of the medieval craftsmen who built them, and cannot be paralleled anywhere else in Britain.

The city of Exeter was one of the great provincial capitals of late medieval and early modern England, possessing a range of civic amenities fully commensurate with its size and importance.  Among the most impressive of these was its highly sophisticated system of public water supply, including a unique network of underground passages.  Most of these ancient passages still survive today.
Water in the City provides a richly illustrated history of Exeter's famous underground passages—and of Exeter’s system of public water supply during the medieval and early modern periods. Illustrated with full colour throughout, Mark Stoyle shows how and why the passages and aqueducts were originally built, considers the technologies that were used in their construction, explains how they were funded and maintained, and reveals the various ways in which the water fountains were used and abused by the townsfolk.

Illustrations  
Acknowledgments
Glossary of archaic words and phrases used in the text and documents
Abbreviations                                                                                               1        Introduction
Part I: The History of Exeter’s Underground Passages and Aqueduct Systems
2        The Aqueducts of Medieval Exeter, 1226-1420             
3        The Development of the New Conduit, 1420-1536         
4        After the Dissolution of the Monasteries                          
5        The City Aqueducts under the Early Stuarts                    
6        After the Restoration                                                        
Part II: The Life of the City Aqueducts
7        The Role of the Aqueducts in Exeter’s daily life              
Part III: Documents relating to the City Aqueducts
The Exeter Receivers and their Accounts               
1.       Extracts from the City Receivers’ Accounts, 1424-1603 
2.       ‘Outgoings for making of Exeter’s New Conduit’, 1441 
3.       Account of Work on the Great Conduit, 1534-35            
Notes
Bibliography
Index