Tormohun; Morgan; Lymington; Vansittart; Cary; Palk; Lucius; Bampfylde; Falkland. Let's pull together some of those names of the roads around Tor, along with their origin. First, the odd appella…
In 1800 Torquay had a population of only 800. Before the arrival of Royal Navy officers and their families, the consumptives seeking a cure, and the Victorian tourist, Torquay consisted of a sca…
"If you wake at midnight to the sound of horses' feet, Don't go drawin' back the blinds nor lookin' in the street.Them that asks no questions, isn't told a lie.Now watch the wall my darling while th…
This is the tale of how a novel from a Torquay writer was turned into an opera by one of the world's most famous composers; and how it ended up in Hitler's Berlin Bunker as the Russians closed in.…
Does your Torbay home have a name or a number, or perhaps both? These days all urban houses have a number, while the majority do not have names. But names can be important. We can sometimes work ou…
"Upward he shoots By the springs on his boots, Like an inverted angel. When things go black Appears Old Spring Heeled Jack " In July 1847 there was an "extraordinary case" of sexual assault which "gre…
We recently posted an article on how many slaves there were in Anglo-Saxon Torbay. A couple of posters asked how we would feel if we found out that we had an ancestor who was a slave-owner. The answ…
In the light of COVID-19 many people are looking to do something new, local and accessible which does not incur too much travel. Many people are also looking to upskill or simply have a career change.…
A thousand years ago there were around a hundred slaves in Torbay- and probably many more. We know this from the Domesday Book, the record of the 'Great Survey' of much of England and Wales completed…
This is about Torquay's role in the world's most famous kidnapping and an extortionate ransom demand.It all began with England's King Richard - known as the Lionheart. Even though Richard lived most o…
People in Chelston, Torquay have been making mini willow sculptures to decorate their gardens during lockdown. The idea began when a community project to create willow sculptures for the local …
"Torquay is a pretty place... a mixture of Hastings and Tunbridge Wells and little bits of the hills about Naples", Charles Dickens Writer and social critic Charles Dickens liked Torquay's beauty; …
The study of the origin of words - or etymology- isn't an exact science.Some Torquay names are obscure but fairly straightforward. For example, the various aristocratic titles and family members of th…
Before the coming of the National Health Service and a modern police force, who would you go to if you were ill or believed that someone was doing you harm? For thousands of years it was the local cu…