Besley's Directory Of Exeter & Suburbs 1906

Step back into the bustling streets of Edwardian Exeter with this digital reproduction of Besley's Directory of Exeter & Suburbs 1906. Available instantly as a digital download or mailed to you on a handy CD, this invaluable genealogical resource is the ultimate key to unlocking your West Country roots.

Whether you are tracing the movements of a wandering great-grandparent or mapping out the businesses of your ancestors, this directory serves as a perfect bridge across the notorious "census gaps."

Bridging the Census Gap & The "Government Distrust" Factor

As any family historian knows, finding ancestors between the 1901 and 1911 censuses can be a nightmare. But what if your ancestors simply aren't in the census at all?

Just as we see skepticism toward government data collection today, the early 1900s were rife with anti-government sentiment—most notably from the militant wing of the Women's Suffrage movement, who actively organized boycotts and refused to fill out the 1911 census forms. If your female ancestors (or their sympathetic male relatives) evaded the census enumerators out of protest or general distrust, they won't appear in the official government records. However, they are almost certainly listed right here. Besley’s compilers did not work for the government; they went door-to-door for commercial purposes, meaning this directory captures the defiant, the private, and the overlooked.

What’s Inside? A Breakdown of the Directory

Besley's directories are famously comprehensive, and the 1906 edition is no exception. Because it is organized alphabetically, navigating the PDF to find your family is an absolute breeze. The book is divided into highly useful sections:

• The Commercial & Private Alphabetical Directory: The core of the book. Lists the names, occupations, and street addresses of the residents and business owners of Exeter.
• The Street Directory: Perfect for tracing exactly who lived next door to your ancestors. Walk down the virtual streets of Exeter and see the exact layout of neighborhoods.
• The Trades & Professions Directory: Want to know every butcher, baker, or candlestick maker in the city? This section groups residents by their occupation—ideal for tracking the movements of specific tradesmen.
• The Official & Municipal Directory: A who’s-who of Edwardian civic life. Lists magistrates, city councilors, aldermen, parish officials, and local board members.
• The Suburbs: Expands the search net to include the rapidly growing surrounding areas, including St. Thomas, Heavitree, Exwick, Alphington, and St. Sidwell’s.

Edwardian Exeter in 1906: A Snapshot in Time

To understand where your ancestors lived, you need to understand the world they inhabited. In 1906, Exeter was a city in transition, blending its ancient ecclesiastical roots with modern industrial might:

• Industry & Commerce: Exeter was still riding the tail-end of its historical wool and cloth trade, but by 1906, the city was dominated by engineering, iron founding, and printing. The massive printing works of William Pollard & Co. employed a huge swath of the local population. Brewing was also a massive local industry, with breweries like Exeter Brewery (later to become part of the national brewing empire) providing livelihoods for hundreds.
• Sporting Life: If you have ancestors who loved sports, 1906 was an exciting time. Exeter City Football Club had just been founded in 1901 (originally as Exeter United), and the city was gripped by football fever. You may very well find early club officials, committee members, or players listed in these pages. Cricket was also massively popular, with matches regularly drawing massive crowds at the County Ground.
• Music & Culture: Exeter had a rich musical life centered around the Cathedral and its choirs, but also a thriving secular scene with brass bands, choral societies, and music halls entertaining the working classes.
• Famous Local Figures: Keep an eye out for Harry Hems (1842–1916), the brilliantly eccentric and internationally renowned sculptor and woodcarver whose massive workshop on Longbrook Street was a famous Exeter landmark. You may also spot members of the Veale family, who ran the highly prestigious Veale's Department Store in the High Street, or local politicians who were shaping the modern city.

Cutting-Edge Technology Meets Edwardian History

While this product consists of scanned images of the original book, you are not stuck reading blurry text! We have formatted this as a standard PDF, taking full advantage of modern computing power:

• On-the-Fly OCR: Modern desktop PDF readers (like Adobe Acrobat) can perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the fly. Simply hit Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) and type in a surname. Even if the original printed text is slightly faded, modern software can often pick up the words.
• Built-in Google Lens: Using a Chrome browser or the Adobe Acrobat app? You can highlight any tricky section of text, right-click, and use Google Lens to instantly grab the text, copy it, or search for it online.
• Translation: If you are struggling with archaic phrasing or Latin abbreviations, modern PDF readers allow you to select text and translate it into modern English (or any other language) instantly.
• Text-to-Speech (Desktop PCs Only): Tired of straining your eyes at the screen? Open this PDF on a desktop PC, turn on the built-in "Read Aloud" or Text-to-Speech function, and let your computer read the 1906 directory to you while you take notes. (Please note: Due to mobile OS limitations, Text-to-Speech via PDF reader is generally only available on desktop PCs).

Important Disclaimer

Please Note: Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the product title or description, the original fold-out map that accompanied this directory is missing. Fold-out maps were frequently removed by previous owners to be framed or hung on walls, and very few have survived the last 118 years.

Format Options: Choose between an Instant Digital Download (receive a link immediately upon checkout) or a CD-ROM (physically mailed to your door, perfect for those who prefer a physical backup of their genealogy data).

Reconnect with your Exeter ancestors today—because the census isn't the whole story!