Three eras of one shop on South Street. The Leyman family from 1887 through to 1982. A nineteen-year stewardship from 1982 to 2001. And Chris Lewis at the counter and the bench since 2001, working new and secondhand jewellery alongside watch and clock repair carried out on the premises. The door opens at half past eight in the morning, before most of the cathedral quarter is awake.
New jewellery, secondhand pieces, watch and clock repair, valuations. All under the same roof at 16 South Street.
Diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, tanzanite, blue topaz and opal across 9 carat and white gold settings, with a deep silver counter alongside. Wedding rings are a counter conversation, not a catalogue order. If you have a specific stone, a half-imagined remodel of an old piece, or a ring whose size you have only ever guessed, we will sit down with you and work it out.
Battery changes whilst you wait. Strap and pin work the same day. Movement service, glass and crown replacements, antique pocket-watch work taken on a case by case basis. Everything is done at the bench behind the counter on South Street, not packed up and posted to a regional workshop, which is why "Leymans did the job the very next day" appears again and again in the testimonials.
Mantel clocks, wall clocks and the longer family pieces that need to come in by car. Restringing, suspension springs, full chime service, pendulum truing. We will give you an honest assessment of whether a clock is worth the work before any spanner comes out of the drawer.
Insurance valuations for jewellery, watches and clocks, with items left on the premises covered by T.H. March, the jewellery trade insurer. Remodelling work, from a wedding ring resize of four full sizes to a complete recast of an inherited piece, is the work the shop does most quietly and most often.
Leymans Jewellers opened in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The shop has been on or about 16 South Street ever since, through the Edwardian decade, two world wars, the 4 May 1942 Baedeker raid that destroyed sixty-plus shopfronts on this street, and the post-war rebuild that ran from 1954 through to 1961. Three named owners across the 139 years, and one craft.
The shop opens at South Street in the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Successive members of the Leyman family run it for 95 years across the Edwardian decade, two world wars, and the night of the 4 May 1942 Baedeker raid that took out sixty-plus shopfronts on South Street.
The Leyman family sell the business in 1982. The buyer keeps it on South Street for nineteen years and employs Chris Lewis at the bench through that entire period. The middle era is quieter on the page than the other two; the trade carries on the same way it always has, with the door open at half eight in the morning.
Chris buys the shop outright in 2001 and runs it as a family business. Twenty-five years at the counter and the bench, named in eight of the eight named testimonials on the current site, working watches and clocks alongside the new and second-hand jewellery counter. "Recently had my wedding ring remodelled by Chris at Leymans" is how the customers talk about the shop.
The bench at Leymans is behind the counter at 16 South Street, not in a regional workshop or a unit on a trading estate. A ring resize is back to you the next working day; a watch battery is changed whilst you stand at the counter. Chain clasps and link work are done at the same bench, the same afternoon. The shop closes the till at three so the bench can keep working until the door is locked.
“Recently had my wedding ring remodelled by Chris at Leymans. I was delighted with the result.”Beverley Meredith · customer, Exeter
“First class service from start to finish from Chris,” writes Gloria Jones. “Leymans did a fantastic job making the ring four sizes smaller,” writes Daniel Mortimer. “Work carried out in two days on premises which is rare nowadays,” writes Patrick Hallett. Eight named voices on the current site, all of them naming Chris by first name.
16 South Street sits in the Cathedral and South Street Quarter, four minutes' walk from Exeter Cathedral and eight minutes from Exeter Central station. The shop is on the same stretch as Trugs Florist at number 18 next door, and South Gate Gallery further down at number 64. The Farmers' Market sits at the foot of South Street where it meets Fore Street.
Most resizes are done on the premises and back to you the next working day. A wedding-ring remodel of three or four sizes is in the same window. The price depends on the metal and the work, but the customer testimonials on the current site reference chain-clasp repairs under thirty pounds and same-day battery changes; we are not pricing you against a chain workshop posting your ring to a unit on a trading estate.
No. The mocks in the proposal show what the rebuilt site will look like, and you sign off on the design before any production code is written. If you have brand assets, I will respect them. If you do not, you will get a coherent visual language out of the project and own it afterwards. We can also work together to get the vibe you want into the website, and I will make sure it is SEO optimised.
Yes. Items left on the premises for repair or valuation are covered by T.H. March, the jewellery trade insurer, while they are with us. We log everything in at the counter when you bring it in, give you a written receipt with a callback date, and you have a named person, Chris, to ask about it whenever you want.
Yes. Bring the piece in, leave it with us long enough for a proper look, and we will tell you honestly what the metal is worth as bullion versus what it could become as a new ring or pendant. We will not push you to remodel a piece that is worth keeping as it is.
Pocket watches we work on at the bench, case by case. The wood cabinet at the counter is normally carrying half a dozen secondhand ones at any time. Longer clocks, including the family-piece longcase clocks that need to come in by car, we will look at and give an honest assessment before any work is committed to.