ABSTRACT
The palace of the bishops of Exeter occupies a large precinct within the city wall, south-east of the cathedral, with smaller plots occupied by cathedral clergy framing it to the north-west and south-east. The 1647 parliamentary survey records in considerable detail the medieval palace broadly at its greatest extent. This survey was made in the context of the sequestration of episcopal property during the Commonwealth, prior to the disposal of the building. Modern research on the palace still rests on the shoulders of Prebendary J. F. Chanter's fundamental treatment of its history and development. Some modern archaeological recording of the building was possible in 1985, during a programme of refurbishment in the interregnum between Bishops Mercer and Thompson, and at this time the processes by which the medieval great hall had been divided up in the mid-seventeenth century were understood for the first time.
