St Loyes is a ward within Exeter City Council on the east side of the city. The current boundaries were set in the City Council’s 2016 reorganisation, and can be seen in the map below… together with a suggested route for ‘beating the bounds’ using different modes of transport.
St Loyes and Topsham are anomalous in Exeter, both wards being moved from the Exeter constituency to East Devon in 2010. The constituency boundaries are based on the old St Loyes ward, before the City Council reorganisation in 2016, so now the two don’t match. I need to check, but I think the boundaries of the Devon County Council electoral division of Wonford and St Loyes are based on the constituency boundaries. I do know that they don’t match the City Council boundaries. All potentially very confusing! We are waiting until September 2018 to find out whether the Boundary Commission recommends St Loyes be moved back into the Exeter constituency.
So at the moment St Loyes is a mix of council housing, mobile homes, old and new suburbs, industrial estate, retail park, M5 J30 services and part of Ludwell Valley Park. Bizarrely, it doesn’t include either the area around St Loyes Road often labelled as ‘St Loyes’ on maps, nor the old St Loyes Foundation site, nor even St Loyes Chapel, which is the wrong side of Rifford Road.
There are three primaries, one secondary school, a couple of small churches, and a few public sector organisations. There isn’t really a pub for locals, and other than a few cafés for workers on Sowton, most of the eateries are for shoppers and people passing through. It has no community centre, post office, or anything obvious that connects people and provides heart.
But take a wander or scratch the surface, and it is immensely interesting.
