From Los Angeles to Exeter: Uncovering a Family’s Forgotten Legacy

This past month, we had the extraordinary privilege of welcoming a visitor to Cathedral Yard whose connection to the site runs deeper than bricks and mortar. Diana Faust, a writer and researcher from Los Angeles, reached out to us after tracing her family roots back to No. 16 Cathedral Yard — now part of the Royal Clarence redevelopment. Her message was curious, warm, and full of questions. What followed was one of the most moving experiences we’ve had since beginning this project.

Diana had grown up hearing stories about her ancestors, the Ridge family, who lived in Exeter during the 1800s. Her research had led her to the doorstep of the Royal Clarence site, where she hoped to find the remnants of their home and piece together a personal puzzle that spanned generations and continents. What she found was more than just the physical traces of a house. It was an echo of belonging that resonated through time.

Her visit, carefully coordinated with our team, began with a guided tour around the Royal Clarence site and the location of the former No. 16 Cathedral Yard. Accompanied by her aunt and Red Coat Tour Guide extraordinaire, Sue Ayres, Diana was visibly moved as she stepped into the courtyard behind the property—a space that had long since disappeared from the public eye.

In the early 1900s, the courtyard had been filled in with extensions, effectively hiding its original footprint. It was only due to the 2016 fire that the area was once again exposed. Diana stood in that space, now laid bare, and took in the walls, the windows, the worn stone that had seen centuries pass by. “We’re standing in the small courtyard behind No. 16 where there was a water pump in the 1800s,” she told us. “Otherwise I’d never have seen what the size and shape of their house in the 1800s was. So cool!”

She explored further, comparing the site to her research: Victorian-era maps, family records, and old photographs. As she pointed out features of the architecture, one small detail stood out — a message, scrawled in graffiti, on the back of a stairwell wall. It simply read: “Yo Family.”

“It felt like a serendipitous message just for my visit,” Diana laughed later. “How fun is that!”

This uncanny moment, this simple two-word phrase, captured everything about Diana’s journey. A family once rooted in this place. A building ravaged by fire, yet rich with stories. And a woman who crossed an ocean to find herself standing in the exact spot where her ancestors had drawn water, raised children, and lived their lives. It was history made personal, present, and profoundly moving.

The visit culminated in what Diana later described as the highlight of her UK trip. After meeting members of our NooKo team and taking a tour of the broader site, she shared her impressions with heartfelt gratitude. In a follow-up email, she wrote:

“Thanks again to everyone at NooKo for making this visit happen. It was really a highlight of our UK trip. And the fact that in this whole site standing vacant for eight years, there’s almost no graffiti… I only saw a few crude scribbles of bad art in the whole building, including the Clarence. But look at the written message on the back of the stairs in No. 16! ‘Yo Family’ – it felt like it was meant for me.”

She also shared a series of photographs and a video she took during her visit, including an image of the bricked-up windows from the Ridge family’s time — physical remnants of a home that had adapted and evolved over centuries. Her excitement was infectious.

Stories like Diana’s are exactly why we created the Royal Clarence Time Capsule. When we invited people to contribute memories, family histories, artefacts, or moments connected to the site, we hoped for responses that would reveal the building’s deep-rooted ties to Exeter’s social fabric. Diana’s journey surpassed anything we could have imagined.

It’s easy to think of restoration projects as bricks, budgets, and blueprints. But the truth is, buildings like the Royal Clarence live on through the people who remember them. Through personal archives, oral histories, letters, and chance discoveries that stitch the past into the present.

And sometimes, those discoveries travel a very long way to find their home again.

For our team, Diana’s visit was a powerful reminder of what this work is truly about. The scaffolding might still be up in places. The paint may still be drying. But already, this site is a vessel for living memory. Already, it is drawing back people who belong here.

We’re incredibly honoured that Diana chose to share her story with us. It’s now part of the tapestry we’re weaving into the future of the Royal Clarence — a future that doesn’t erase the past, but rather, celebrates it in all its vivid, human complexity.

If you have a connection to the Royal Clarence, we’d love to hear from you. Whether it’s a family tale, a photograph, or a single moment remembered – your story matters.

Submit your entry to the Royal Clarence Time Capsule here.

Because who knows? One day, someone may stand in your footsteps and feel the echo of history whispering: “Yo Family.”