Sacred Heart Church, Exeter

Before the church was built, Roman Catholics congregated for Mass in rooms of houses. The first post-Reformation Catholic chapel in Exeter was recorded in 1791 near the remains of St Nicholas' Priory, and this building was subsequently replaced by Sacred Heart Church. The site of the church was previously the Bear Tavern, which before the Dissolution of the Monasteries was the town house of the abbots of Tavistock Abbey. The church also remembers the history of the Reformation. There is contained within the church a statue of St Thomas More, a martyr of the Reformation, as well as a banner of the five wounds. This is an acknowledgement of the Western Rebellion in 1549. At the time of…

A committee was formed in 1788 with the intention of serving Exeter's Catholic population, which was estimated at the time to be around 300 people. Inside, the church was made using materials such as Bath Corsham, Pocombe and Portland stone; the total construction cost approximately £10,000. In 1926, the church tower was completed. Originally designed as a pointed spire, the 140 ft flat-top tower contains a bell of 51 kg.