St Sidwell's is an area east of Exeter city centre in the ward of Newtown. Formerly a village in its own right, St Sidwell's grew in importance along with Exeter thanks to its location on the main cart track between Exeter and the high ground of Stoke Hill and the rich farmland of East Devon.
The springs of St Sidwell's were tapped by the Romans for the needs of the city and their water piped via wooden aqueducts to supply their citadel. This system became the underground passages of the 13th century and was only turned off in 1902. The settlement's current name derives from Saint Sidwell.
In 1665, St Sidwell's Church of England School was founded [1] and is still there to this day as a primary school. Children's author Gene Kemp taught at the school in the 1970s.
St Sidwell's comprises part of Exeter City Centre (Sidwell Street) to the west and a residential area to the east. It is south of Pennsylvania and north of Newtown. Sidwell Street is the main road through the area, which splits into Old Tiverton Road and Blackboy road further east.[2] It is the eastern end of the city centre. The nearest railway station is St James Park.
The parish is mentioned in an 1865 edition of Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round: