All tourist resorts are not the same... They evolved in their own ways, making Paignton a different town to Torquay. Let's begin with the early days of Torquay as a resort. Our mild climate attracte…

Why was Torre Abbey's Gatehouse built? When the antiquary John Leland visited Torre Abbey in the sixteenth century he described “three fair gate houses‟. One of these was the Mohun gatehouse (picture…

Alfred Hitchcock was right- they are out to get us... (*) At the topmost part of the 1893 Torquay Arms stands a proud gull. It demands its place as being top of the food chain in our town, and warn…

Just released is 'Colour Out of Space', a new Nicolas Cage movie. This is a science-fiction horror movie about a meteor that slams into Earth unleashing an extraterrestrial organism. Directed by Richa…

The River Fleet gives its name to Torquay's Fleet Street and is the town's subterranean watercourse. Behind Torquay harbour two narrow valleys stretch back from the waterfront. On the west, Fleet Stre…

If you drive along the Torbay Road from Torquay towards Paignton, through Livermead - from ‘laefer mead’, ‘the meadow of the wild iris’ - to your left is Institute Beach. At low tide can still be seen…

Devon was once a land of giants. Or it was according to the historian Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Historia regum Britanniae' (The History of the Kings of Britain), written around 1136. Geoffrey chronicled…

Here's another Torquay ghost story... "I resent Mrs Langtry, she has no right to be intelligent, daring and independent, as well as lovely”, Torquay resident George Bernard Shaw Oscar Wilde comm…

It's just been announced that Monty Python star Terry Jones has died at the age of 77. Tributes have poured in for Terry including from fellow Python Sir Michael Palin who said he was, "kind, gener…

Just when we thought we had a definitive list of movies made in South Devon, another pops up... and it's an Oscar winner.'Barry Lyndon' is a 1975 period drama written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, …

It was once believed that another a race of beings lived alongside humans in Torbay - a little people who have mostly long gone, either extinct or have been forced far away to Dartmoor, shrunk in size…