Trails and Walks

We are keen to develop trails and walks in  Exwick, here are some examples:

• our trail guide  

& other ideas to help you explore.

Events & Projects

If you would like to get involved in our local events or projects, please see:

• our events page

•  visit our projects page

Local Studies & Memories

If you wish to explore Exwick's long and varied history, here are some pages offering help, ideas and questions:

• our Local Studies pages (covering Exwick             since time immemorial)

• our Local Memories pages (focussed on what we know about Exwick during living memory, or back a generation ot two).

We are the "Exwick Local History Society; an active and enthusiastic Local+History+Club

with events and activities taking place year-round.

We always welcome new members to take part; this a group for all local people to benefit from.

All ideas welcome.

Come along and meet us 10-12am the first Friday of each month at the Parish Hall, Station Road, Exwick

We also meet at other times/venues; please email us for other forthcoming arrangements.

PLEASE LEAVE US YOUR NAME & EMAIL if you would like to know more

about our meetings, walks or events - or just to stay in touch.

Or contact us at exwicklocalhistory@gmail.com

What's in a name ?

This well-known quotation/question comes from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Here, Shakespeare reminds us that a name itself is unimportant compared to the qualities of the object, person or place.

We have - with apologies to Shapespeare- been giving some thought to our name: 'Exwick'.  In the Domesday Book our Latinised place-name was 'Essoic'; in the Twelfth Century the English word 'Exewic' was used, and in the Seventeenth Century 'Exweeke' and 'Exweek'.  Textbooks tell us that the Anglo-Saxon word-endings 'wick', 'wic', or 'wich' (from the Latin 'vicus') indicated a social unit above the household (such as a village, a hamlet, or a small farmstead) - so 'Exwick', the name we are now familiar with, would make perfect sense for a small village, hamlet or farmstead near the Exe !  

As you may know, the spelling of place-names was not standardised until Victorian times - when, with the advent of railways and post offices, agreed spellings became highly useful. Previous to that, name variations were common. For example, on Morden's Map of Devon (part of which is shown above and published in about 1704), Exeter is rendered 'Excester'; Crediton, 'Kirton'; and Ottery St Mary, 'Autre'. Sometimes there were an amazing number of place-name spellings; Victorian antiquarians found 4o different names had been used for the town we call 'Cullompton';  we don't expect to find that many historical variants of our place-name !

We still have a few unanswered questions:

• Q1. Besides 'Essoic', 'Exweeke' 'Exweek' and 'Exwick' does anyone know

of any other Latin or English spellings of our place-name ?

• Q2. When was 'Exwick' (today's accepted, spelling) first used ?

Email us if you can help with the answers, or have any further thoughts or information about our name.

We can then update this article/topic.

[some further reading about this topic is here]

Please visit our Q&A pages here for other questions about Exwick's local history.