The Torquay Top Hat
If we look at images from Victorian Torquay, it's noticeable that everyone wore a hat. And for much of...
The Torquay Muff
We have a couple of 1870 prints entitled 'The Strand';' and 'Torquay Morning Promenade in the Paignton Road'. Both these...
Torquay’s Promenading Parasol
This one is about the secret language of Torquay's promenading parasol. First, a definition. A parasol is not an umbrella....
Tuscan Torquay
This is about Tuscan Torquay; and why we decided to build mock Italian church bell towers across our town. In...
Making Torquay’s Middle Class: Torre’s Constitutional Club
Just next to Torquay Police Station in Torre is an unusual four-storey building. This is the old Torre Conservative Club...
Torquay as a Woman’s Town
Sybil Fawlty really ran Fawlty Towers. She was a far more effective manager than her husband, handled crises calmly, and...
Torbay’s Heritage
Torbay's Heritage Interpretation Framework has just been published. 'A Haven Through Time’ uses the eight themes of the Heritage Strategy...
How Torquay Votes
During the nineteenth century a few families transformed a collection of rural hamlets into the richest town in England. By...
Torbay welcomes back the Street Pastors
Torbay's hospitality industry has suffered due to the pandemic but now venues are about to open on June 21st and...
Torbay’s Guerrilla Golf
Torquay has Jungle Journey Adventure Golf, Paignton has Pirates Bay Adventure Golf, and there's Crazy Golf at Goodrington. And, at...
Torquay: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”
"Lo! time shall come, when on yon throng’d paradeShall groups assemble, swains and many a maid,And elder dames and sires,...
What was Torquay’s St Michael’s Chapel actually for?
What was Torquay's St Michael's Chapel actually for? Over the years it has been described as: a sea mark; a...
Torquay, “an imposter, a delusion and a snare”
By 1870 there were 48 places classified as seaside resorts in a halo around Britain; but not all were the...
Torquay’s Rifle Volunteers March Out
On January 14th, 1858, the French Emperor Napoleon III was attacked in his capital by a gang of assassins who...
Blackball: Torquay’s Bowling movie
The growing challenge to Torquay's status as an elite tourist destination was becoming evident from the mid-1960s onward, with the...
Torquay’s Victorian Plant Nurseries
During the nineteenth century Torquay's population increased from around 800 to almost 34,000. The town became a place for the...
The Natural History of the Torbay Grockle
“Most holidaymakers are grockles. But the real ones you can spot a mile off. Usually they wear shorts, woollen socks...
The Grand Tour and the English Riviera
In 1862 Charles Dickens wrote, "Torquay is a pretty place... a mixture of Hastings and Tunbridge Wells and little bits...
St Michael’s Chapel- a secret place of worship?
It has been said that Catholic Torquay came to an end in 1539 when Torre Abbey surrendered to Henry VIII's...
The Torquay War of 1888
This is the story of the 'Torquay War' of 1888.During that year Torquay experienced a sustained challenge to established authority...
