It was the birthplace of the librarian Thomas Bodley, and the theologian Richard Hooker, and from the 16th century to 1818 was a site for executions within what is now the car park of the St Luke's Campus of the University of Exeter.

Its derivation is uncertain, but because of the known execution site at Livery Dole, it is thought most likely to derive from heafod–treow (old English for "head tree"), which refers to a tree on which the heads of criminals were placed,[3] though an alternative explanation put forward by W. G. Hoskins is that it was a meeting place for the hundred court.

(Local folklore used to associate the name with the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, when Judge Jeffreys supposedly ran out of gibbets.

)[citation needed] The last execution to take place here was in 1818, when Samuel Holmyard was hanged at the Magdalen Drop for passing a forged one pound note.

[5] In the hundred years from 1801 to 1901, the population of Heavitree grew from 833 to 7,529, reflecting its assimilation into the expanding city of Exeter.

Heavitree lies on one of the most convenient routes from the city centre to the northbound M5 motorway and eastbound A30 trunk road ensuring that much traffic continues to pass through the district.

The Heavitree Gap adjoins the city of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.