{"id":111,"date":"2017-05-21T21:58:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T21:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stsidwells.org.uk\/heritage\/?p=111"},"modified":"2017-06-08T16:49:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T16:49:16","slug":"civil-war-st-sidwells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stsidwells.org.uk\/heritage\/civil-war-st-sidwells\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil War St Sidwell\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The parish was devastated in the English Civil War (1642 \u2013 1646) when the Royalist defenders of Exeter cleared vast areas outside the city walls in preparation for a siege. They levelled Sidwell Street to the ground, leaving St Sidwell\u2019s church alone in a sea of rubble in the area between the East Gate and St Anne\u2019s chapel.<\/p>\n<p>The Parliamentarians destroyed the guildhall in St Sidwell&#8217;s, during their own bout of devastation in 1643.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b><i><\/i><\/b>During the Civil War local legend has it that George Cheeke saved the bells of Allhallows church on Goldsmith Street from being smelted down for cannon balls by the parliamentarians. He went by night into the city and removed them to St Sidwell\u2019s church, where they have remained ever since. Other sources state that St Sidwell\u2019s bells were bought from Allhallows church in 1767. Find out more about the Cheeke Family <a href=\"https:\/\/stsidwells.org.uk\/heritage\/cheeke-family\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b><i>Burial ground<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">During the 16th and 17th Centuries people from all walks of life were buried at St Sidwell\u2019s. Prisoners executed at Heavitree for such crimes as piracy, poisoning and murder were buried here as well as several Exeter residents hung for the crime of witchcraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Thomasine Short was the first person in the South West to be executed for witchcraft, accused of cursing the family of Richard Hewe, whose wife, daughter and son all died in 1580. She was tried and sentenced to death in 1581 and buried at St Sidwell\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Hugh Groves was beheaded at Exeter Castle for taking up arms against the Commonwealth during the Civil War. He was buried in the chancel and a brass plaque commemorated him in the north aisle of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parish was devastated in the English Civil War (1642 \u2013 1646) when the Royalist defenders of Exeter cleared vast areas outside the city walls in preparation for a siege. They levelled Sidwell Street to the ground, leaving St Sidwell\u2019s church alone in a sea of rubble in the area between the East Gate and St Anne\u2019s chapel. The Parliamentarians destroyed the guildhall in St Sidwell&#8217;s, during their own bout of devastation in 1643. During the Civil War local legend has it that George Cheeke saved the bells of Allhallows church on Goldsmith Street from being smelted down for cannon balls by the parliamentarians. He went by night into the city and removed them to St Sidwell\u2019s church, where they have remained ever since. Other sources state that St Sidwell\u2019s bells were bought from Allhallows church in 1767. Find out more about the Cheeke Family here. Burial ground During the 16th and 17th Centuries people from all walks of life were buried at St Sidwell\u2019s. Prisoners executed at Heavitree for such crimes as piracy, poisoning and murder were buried here as well as several Exeter residents hung for the crime of witchcraft. Thomasine Short was the first person in the South West to be executed for witchcraft, accused of cursing the family of Richard Hewe, whose wife, daughter and son all died in 1580. She was tried and sentenced to death in 1581 and buried at St Sidwell\u2019s. Hugh Groves was beheaded at Exeter Castle for taking up arms against the Commonwealth during the Civil War. He was buried in the chancel and a brass plaque commemorated him in the north aisle of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war","category-history","entry","post-inner"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Civil War St Sidwell\u2019s - Heritage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stsidwells.org.uk\/heritage\/civil-war-st-sidwells\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Civil War St Sidwell\u2019s - Heritage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The parish was devastated in the English Civil War (1642 \u2013 1646) when the Royalist defenders of Exeter cleared vast areas outside the city walls in preparation for a siege. They levelled Sidwell Street to the ground, leaving St Sidwell\u2019s church alone in a sea of rubble in the area between the East Gate and St Anne\u2019s chapel. The Parliamentarians destroyed the guildhall in St Sidwell&#8217;s, during their own bout of devastation in 1643. During the Civil War local legend has it that George Cheeke saved the bells of Allhallows church on Goldsmith Street from being smelted down for cannon balls by the parliamentarians. He went by night into the city and removed them to St Sidwell\u2019s church, where they have remained ever since. Other sources state that St Sidwell\u2019s bells were bought from Allhallows church in 1767. Find out more about the Cheeke Family here. Burial ground During the 16th and 17th Centuries people from all walks of life were buried at St Sidwell\u2019s. Prisoners executed at Heavitree for such crimes as piracy, poisoning and murder were buried here as well as several Exeter residents hung for the crime of witchcraft. Thomasine Short was the first person in the South West to be executed for witchcraft, accused of cursing the family of Richard Hewe, whose wife, daughter and son all died in 1580. She was tried and sentenced to death in 1581 and buried at St Sidwell\u2019s. Hugh Groves was beheaded at Exeter Castle for taking up arms against the Commonwealth during the Civil War. He was buried in the chancel and a brass plaque commemorated him in the north aisle of the church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/stsidwells.org.uk\/heritage\/civil-war-st-sidwells\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heritage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StSidscc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-21T21:58:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-08T16:49:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"St Sidwell&#039;s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@StSidwells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@StSidwells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"St Sidwell&#039;s\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"St Sidwell's\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67ca6b55f2c16a602e0a4d3cbbe911a4\"},\"headline\":\"Civil War St Sidwell\u2019s\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-21T21:58:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-08T16:49:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Civil War\",\"History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stsidwells.org.uk\\\/heritage\\\/civil-war-st-sidwells\\\/\",\"name\":\"Civil War St Sidwell\u2019s - 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