Countess Wear

Countess Wear is a district within the city of Exeter, Devon, England. It lies about two miles south-east of the city centre, on the north bank of the estuary of the River Exe. Historically an estate known as Weare, part of the manor of Topsham, was in this area. From the late 13th century, the construction of weirs in the River Exe by the Countess, and later, the Earls of Devon damaged the prosperity of Exeter to the benefit of Topsham which was downstream of the obstructions, and was owned by the Earls.

The bridges over the river and the adjacent Exeter Ship Canal were for many years a traffic bottleneck, until the completion of the last section of the M5 motorway, further downstream, in 1977.

The manor of Topsham was granted by King Henry I to Richard de Redvers and became part of his feudal barony of Plympton. The estate, or sub-manor of Weare was part of this. The present manor house was built in Georgian style by Sir John Duckworth, 1st Baronet in about 1804. It is now the club house of Exeter Golf and Country Club.

The wear was commonly known as Countess Wear as early as the fourteenth century: it is named after a weir that Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon is said to have erected in the river hereabouts in the late 13th century. The details of the weir's construction are uncertain: a source of 1290 states that the countess had it built in 1284 and thereby damaged the salmon fishing and prevented boats from reaching Exeter; but a later source claims that her weir was built before 1272, leaving a thirty-foot gap in the centre through which boats could pass, until it was blocked between 1307 and 1377 by her cousin Hugh de Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon and his son, Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd/10th Earl of Devon. The weirs built by the Earls of Devon across the river prevented ships reaching Exeter, thereby forcing merchants to land goods at their port of Topsham, which therefore prospered. Despite several petitions to the king by the people of Exeter, the weirs remained until 1538 when Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter was attainted which resulted in all his possessions reverting to the Crown. In 1540, an Act of Parliament was passed to remove the obstructions, but it was found to be impossible to restore the navigation, and work was soon started to build the Exeter Canal to bypass the blocked section of the river.

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