St. David's, Exeter - location question

[searchers]

Hi,

I have a marriage certificate from the 1920s.  In the 'Residence at time of Marriage' column, his says:  St. David's, Exeter.

Is that most likely referring to the area within Exeter?  The section to the east of the River Exe.

It seems there's usually more info, with a street name and house name or number.   The bride's address does include a house name.
 
Online maps show a street, St. David's Hill, or there's St. David's church or train station!  I'm guessing it's the area though, and unfortunately his address is just a little vague?

Thanks for any ideas,
Charlotte

[AlanBoyd]

Was he a GWR employee? An address search for "St Davids" Exeter 1921 at FindMyPast reveals:

St Davids 2 households
St David's Hill 50 households
St Davids Place 16 households
St Davids Street 1 household
St David's Terrace 10 households inferred from:
   St Davids Tee 1 household [presumably Tce]
   St David's Terrace 1 household
   St Davids Terrace 7 households
   St Davids Tre 1 household

"St Davids 2 households" are both associated with the GWR station

GWR Stables: 11 occupants [two pages]

Station View: 8 occupants all GWR employees with a note referring to employees at the station refreshment rooms

Station View is labelled on old OS maps at the north corner of the modern St Clements Lane and St David's Hill junction. The building that is there now, although not a modern structure, seems to have a different layout (as seen on streetview).

[Gadget]

Exeter St Davids, is one of the railway stations in Exeter, perhaps the main one as it is on the mainline between London and Cornwall. I used to travel there, 5 days a week, in the late 1980s.

There is also a church of that name 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_David%27s_Church,_Exeter

 https://stdavidschurchexeter.org.uk/about-us/where-we-are/

Maybe your ref referred to the parish of St Davids?

Gadget

[KGarrad]

Description of St David's parish taken from GenUKI.org.uk:

its large parish includes the City and County Prisons, the Cavalry Barracks, Northernhay, the Railway Station, the manor of Duryards, and many neat houses.

There are/were 24 parishes in Exeter!

[Gadget]

Addition  to my previous post.

I've seen many reg certs that just refer to an area or village.rather than an actual address.

Gadget

Add - finally found some  maps of the parish -

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Exeter/StDavid/ParishMap

https://www.genuki.org.uk/maps/lmap?LL=50.726395,-3.538640&PLACE=Exeter:%20St%20David

[searchers]

Thank you all very much for your insight and good ideas.  I'm not at all local to Devon, so it's very helpful! 

Since posting, I've now got him in the 1921 census, and he hadn't moved to Exeter yet.  Not a railway employee, but he was in London - so I guess he arrived on that mainline at St. David's station!
It seems that he wasn't in Devon for long, so that's why I was curious about his address.

Thank you kindly.  The ideas and maps are very useful for his wife's side too.  We have several generations going back in that area.

Thanks again!
Charlotte

[ryan]

Hi, just wanted to add a local perspective- St David’s will refer to the parish or neighbourhood (still referred to as such today), not the train station nor one of the streets carrying the name. The station and the streets took their names from the parish church. Putting his residence at St David’s will not mean the train station or its premises. If he wasn’t in town for long, perhaps he was living at a boarding house or guest house; common in St David’s due to the railway and the road to Crediton within the parish - somewhere non-permanent given his almost non-committal, broad use of St David’s.

[Jebber]

If the marriage was after Banns, the residency requirement was three weeks, often got around by using the same address for both.
If by licence no residency was required.

[Gadget]

Hi, just wanted to add a local perspective- St David’s will refer to the parish or neighbourhood (still referred to as such today), not the train station nor one of the streets carrying the name. The station and the streets took their names from the parish church. Putting his residence at St David’s will not mean the train station or its premises. If he wasn’t in town for long, perhaps he was living at a boarding house or guest house; common in St David’s due to the railway and the road to Crediton within the parish - somewhere non-permanent given his almost non-committal, broad use of St David’s.

I think that my Replies #2 and #4 explain this. Also, Kevin's link to the description of the parish #3 also describes the parish of St Davids.