Recent trips:
Exeter!
A group of North Devon young people met up on a cold but dry morning at Barnstaple
train Station for a visit to Exeter.
After a drink in the cafe and with the train tickets brought we headed to the platform to
get the train.
It took around and hour and twenty minutes to get into Exeter Central station after a very
un-eventful journey !
Once in Exeter we headed off towards the city centre, calling in at St Loyes for a rest
stop and to have a look around and see what great things go on there.
Princesshay is the big shopping centre in the town and we had arranged a guided tour
and look around.
We met up with Andrew the centre manager at 11.30 hrs and had a talk and presentation on the history of the site, from its original 1950s building which was build on an area
that was severely damaged by bombs in the war. The new site was built in 2007 after
some of the original Princesshay was demolished. Hay meaning open covered in area.
We put on our reflective or high visibility coats supplied by Andrew and started the tour.
First off we looked at some of the old building that had been left as historical monument
within the new buildings.
Alms houses, stained glass windows, items found during the excavation and a whole
host of other things.
After a tour of the main shopping precinct and a look at some of the shops and the variety of cafes and restaurants, as well as a discussion on the number of visitors and seasonal attractions within the shopping precinct as well as free to use space for
charities and performers.
We talked about the flag ship store within the centre as well as John Lewis.
We then headed underground to the basement, delivery area and recycling centre where
we discussed the varies roles that go on behind the scenes in a place like
Princesshay that maybe would not get thought of.
The centre does not send any waste to land fill sites but recycles everything from plastic
to cans to cardboard and paper as well as food being micro degraded by some new machines then flushed away into the sewage system.
13.