The University traces its origins to schools and colleges established in the middle of the nineteenth century as a result of the energies and visions of individual educational reformers and philanthropists throughout Devon and Cornwall.

A hundred years ago, a large part of the Streatham estate was owned by a millionaire family of former East India Company merchants. Pennsylvania was an exclusive suburb, where children were discouraged from walking in the streets, and even chased away if they failed to raise their hats to residents.

St Germans, now the site of many halls of residence, was a private estate of Victorian family villas guarded by a lodge entrance in St Germans Road. Streatham Farm, now at the heart of the main campus, really was a farm and in the 1820s served teas, junket and Devonshire cream to summer Sunday strollers. St Luke's and Camborne were completely separate establishments.

[source: exeter.ac.uk]