George Powell Ballard: Anarchy in Torbay
“George flashed like a brilliant meteor over our horizon. The movement lost an inspiring personality when he died”, anarchist and...
Torquay’s long and intimate affair with Drink
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” Torquay visitor Oscar Wilde Torquay folk have been in love with alcohol...
Torbay: losing that old time religion?
For the first time in British history, there are probably now more atheists and agnostics in Torbay than believers in...
Torquay man invents sex
Back in the 1880s Torquay-born Sir Richard Francis Burton invented sex. Actually, that might be a bit of an exaggeration....
Bilderberg: when Torquay ruled the world
For a few days in 1977 Torquay ruled the world, or that’s what many thousands of conspiracy theorists would have...
Torquay’s gathering stormclouds of war
Bomb damage in Chelston’s Rosary Road in 1942. During the 1930s, there was a desperate desire that the Great...
Devon has fun with flags: Torbay doesn’t
“A garish flag, to be the aim of every dangerous shot” William Shakespeare There’s a Torquay town centre pub which...
Torquay Peculiar: Reasons to be cheerful
Here at WASD we recently ran an article called ‘Torquay Peculiar’ on what made our town unusual. There followed a...
Torquay Peculiar
We’ve said before that Torquay isn’t an average town. Here’s some statistics to back that feeling up: • Torquay...
Anne, Duchess of Sutherland: the Queen’s Confidant in Torquay
Torquay was once the richest town in England and attracted many of the nation’s most affluent, both as visitors and...
Torquay’s ‘Negro Minstrels’
‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’ finally died of embarrassment in the summer of 1987, with a stage tour...
Zombies in Cornwall: where it all began
“In this place no one can hide from witchcraft, superstition and fear. A land dominated by men without morals. A...
To be hanged at Gallows Gate: a Torquay way of Death
Here at WASD we recently ran an article about Torquay’s site for public executions, Gallows Gate. There seems to have...
The ‘Weird Melancholy’ of Torquay author Rosa Praed
“Tis naughty and it is not nice. Why does she dream such things? Why link bad women and bad...
Was Gallows Gate Torquay’s Stonehenge?
Did Torquay have its own version of Stonehenge? Unlikely as this may seem, stone monuments were once common in southern...
TS Eliot’s Wasteland, and a ménage a trois at the Torbay Hotel
“April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with...
“What if?” Torquay landlord (almost) changes world history
“What might have been is a distraction, Remaining a perpetual possibility, Only in a world of speculation”, Torquay visitor the...
The Rolling Stones in Torquay
“Torquay’s a great town. But I shouldn’t think there’s much to do in the winter’, Mick Jagger, 1964 In 2015...
“One of the few commanders who came out of the Great War with an enhanced reputation.” Torquay’s Herbert Plumer
Wylam Lodge on Torquay’s Haldon Road (pictured right) was originally Malpas Lodge, and by 1906 was known as Kya Lam....
The natural history of the Torquay Grockle 1966-2019
“Most holidaymakers are grockles. But the real ones you can spot a mile off. Usually they wear shorts, woollen socks...
