Home X-twitter Facebook Instagram
Safeguarding
Community Hub
What's On
NEW Treasures Exhibition
Community Hub
What's On
NEW Treasures Exhibition

World War Two: Destruction and Renewal

Explore more

These details supplement information provided in the Chapel of St James.

The Exeter Blitz

Cathedral Wartime Preparation & Damage

Cathedral Bomb Damage: Aftermath & Restoration

“Exeter Cathedral is architecture as theatre.”
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian13.11.21
“A lovely way to spend the afternoon for the whole family.”
TripAdvisor review29.08.21
“Really lovely, and unexpectedly ‘wow.’”
TripAdvisor review25.09.21
“I am in a wheelchair, but I could see everything (pretty much!)”
TripAdvisor review18.09.21
“Well worth the sore neck from time spent looking heavenwards!”
TripAdvisor review24:10:21
“An oasis of calm…”
TripAdvisor review 30:08:21
“A beautiful choir sang the mass and all the people were friendly and welcoming.”
TripAdvisor review31:10:21

Service
schedule

Plan your
visit

Virtual
prayer wall

© 2025 Exeter Cathedral. All Rights Reserved. | Registered charity number: 1206915

The Exeter Blitz

For the first two and a half years of the second world war, Exeter suffered little direct enemy action. Although hundreds of alerts were sounded, they usually responded to individual reconnaissance aircraft or formations bound for other destinations. When five bombs were dropped on the city in August 1940 no properties were damaged and only one person was slightly injured.

In March 1942, the Royal Air Force launched an attack on the medieval German city of Lübeck. In retaliation, Hitler ordered a wave of attacks on historic English cities between April and June 1942. These were known as the ‘Baedeker raids’, after a popular German guide book to Britain. Exeter was the first to be bombed, followed by Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury. The initial attack was over three nights in April 1942. Only a single aircraft was involved on the first and third nights but on the night of 24/5 April 25 aircraft bombed Exeter causing severe damage across the city with nearly 100 casualties, including 73 deaths. Some buildings in the Cathedral Close were seriously damaged and debris hit the great church. The nearby Cathedral School was destroyed where four people were killed as they slept. However, worse was to come.

A more deadly attack took place during the early hours of 4 May. For over an hour, incendiary bombs and high explosives rained down on Exeter from 40 aircraft, destroying ancient city centre properties and more than one thousand homes. It was during this raid, that Exeter Cathedral was directly hit by an explosive device.

During this attack on Exeter more than 150 people were killed and over 550 injured. It could have been even worse but for the eight brave men of the Polish 307 ‘Lwów Eagle Owls’ night-fighter squadron based near Exeter who took to the skies in their four aircraft. Despite being heavily outnumbered, they shot down four of the attacking aircraft before they had a chance to release bombs and they probably disrupted the actions of several more. The important role of this squadron was recognised formally by the installation of a memorial in St James’ chapel which was unveiled by the Polish Ambassador to Great Britain on 15 November 2017.

Not only were historic buildings lost that night, but when fire engulfed the city library about a million books and historic documents were also destroyed.

On Sunday 3 May 1992, the 50th anniversary of the attacks on Exeter was marked in the cathedral by a service of commemoration and rededication which was broadcast live on national television. During this service, the Mayor of Exeter and the City President of Lübeck took part in an act of reconciliation.

Cathedral Wartime Preparation & Damage

At the outbreak of the second world war, the dean and chapter sought to minimise possible dangers to Exeter Cathedral and its contents. In September 1939, plans were drawn up to transfer precious items to safe locations where they would be stored until hostilities ended. Items which couldn’t be removed were to be protected.

By the end of that month, medieval stained glass had been removed and those windows boarded up. The sedilia by the high altar and the tomb of Bishop Bronescombe were protected by walls of sandbags. Producing lists of pictures and other materials to be safeguarded took longer. The removal of historic manuscripts to safe storage was still taking place in May 1941 when it was also decided that the complex structure of the ancient bishop’s throne canopy should be dismantled and stored. The precious carved misericords were also sent to a place of safety.

These preparations were most fortunate in the light of what happened on 4 May 1942.

The need to protect the building was also addressed. Of great concern was the threat of fire. Water tanks were installed in the roof space, parts of the roof were protected with a layer of bricks, stirrup pumps with stocks of sand and water were placed around the building. Two fire escapes were erected from the top of the south tower.

Teams of staff and volunteers were on duty round the clock in case of fire. Their base was the ground floor of the south east corner of the cloisters which was fitted with beds for use between night watches. Dean Spencer Carpenter recalled a lighted hearted event in February 1941 after six inches of snow had fallen. He joined fire watchers on the tops of the two towers to throw snowballs between the towers, later reporting ‘not many direct hits were registered, but it was great fun’.

Exeter Cathedral first sustained damage during a raid on the city on the night of 24/5 April 1942. When nearby properties were bombed, debris from the explosions hit the cathedral, shattering windows in the Lady Chapel beyond repair. During the massive bombing raid on Exeter in the early hours of 4 May 1942, the cathedral received a direct hit by an explosive device. The chapel of St James on the south side of the quire was reduced to rubble. Two adjacent buttresses and three bays of the south quire aisle vault collapsed. Part of the nearby bishop’s palace was also badly damaged. The effects of the blast caused widespread damage, mainly in the quire. Organ pipes were left hanging at crazy angles, choirstalls were upended, monuments were damaged, the quire pulpit was totally destroyed, wooden screens and the delicate pinnacles of the sedilia were in thousands of pieces.

Clergy houses were also damaged during the night and left uninhabitable. The many explosions throughout the night shattered the cathedral’s windows. Nearby, properties in South Street and some even closer to the cathedral were ablaze, but fortunately fire did not reach the cathedral.

Cathedral Bomb Damage: Aftermath & Restoration

In response to the devastating damage to Exeter Cathedral on the morning of 4 May 1942, telegrams were sent seeking help from the surveyor Godfrey Allan and the organ builders Harrison and Harrison who came immediately to inspect the damage and support recovery.

Work was soon underway to brace and shield the damaged building. This hoarding was to stay in place until the end of the war when restoration work could begin. The organ was dismantled and pipes stored in the chapter house. Windows, most of which had been irreparably damaged, were boarded up. The next priority was to make the nave usable for worship. Until then, services were held in various locations, including on the cathedral green.

Although the craftsman Herbert Read had lost his own business, including his workshop, he devoted himself to the cathedral. He and an assistant immediately set about working through the piles of rubble. His intimate knowledge of the cathedral enabled him to identify the origins of thousands of pieces of stone and wood which were sorted and separated into appropriate collections in the aisles around the quire.

In June 1942, the secretary of the Central Council for the Care of Churches wrote in a letter to The Times ‘I have never seen such wonderful salvage work as at Exeter’.

Once the war was over, restoration and rebuilding work began. Herbert Read embarked upon the monumental task of reassembling the wooden screens, carving and inserting new wood where necessary. The chapel of St James with a room above and the adjacent quire aisle vaults were rebuilt in the style of the lost structures.

Monuments and other fittings were repaired and re-installed, and a new pulpit was erected in the quire. The organ was repaired and gradually the items stored elsewhere were returned to the cathedral. The medieval glass was reinstated and new stained glass windows were commissioned to replace some of those lost.

This was a long and costly process. Although the government financed some war damage repairs, a major fundraising campaign was also necessary. The chapel of St James was consecrated on 29 June, St Peter’s Day, in 1953. Its rebuilding had been supervised by the cathedral’s master mason George Down. Upon his death in 1958, he was laid to rest in the south east corner of the chapel below the corbel portraying him.

In May 1958, The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment was formed by the amalgamation of The Devonshire Regiment and The Dorsetshire Regiment. The chapel of St James became the spiritual home of the new regiment until 2014.

Community Hub
Safeguarding