Here in Torquay we like to think of ourselves as being welcoming to tourists. However, this wasn’t always so. For example, back in September 1926 two local men stood trial for inflicting serious b…

Here at WASD we like to remember Torquay folk who have made their mark on the world. This time it’s the science fiction pioneer and St Marychurch resident Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866-1960). Al…

“Deep night, dark night, the silence of the night, spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves”, William Shakespeare Night-time Torquay is another Torquay. Late at night, despite the electric li…

  On October 8th 1834 the darkness was banished from Torquay. Forty gas lamps were installed in our main thoroughfares – two years later the street lighting was extended from Castle Circus…

“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 said, "I would rather have discov…

  In 1973 Trevor Ravenscroft (pictured), who would later live in Torquay, wrote a book called ‘The Spear of Destiny’. This book became recognised by some as a classic of Holy Grail and Nazi oc…

Continuing our WASD theme of South Devon’s weird landscape, let’s turn our attention to our haunted coastal route - the current A379 Teignmouth Road. The historian Theo Brown remembers her father …

Continuing the WASD theme of South Devon’s weird landscape, here’s the story of Kingskerswell’s Creeping Coffin. During the mid eighteenth century Colonel Richard Ellicombe married into the…

For centuries the main way out of Torquay to our nearest town was the Newton Road – the route to the New Town of the Abbots set up by Torre Abbey around 1250. Now after 800 years the old road has …

Now the new road between Torquay and Newton Abbot is open there’s a far quicker way to get to Plymouth. It can save at least 20 minutes compared to driving through Totnes. It involves going through…

“There’s something in the trees!” Here at WASD we like movies made locally in places we can recognise. It’s therefore nice to see a new horror movie made on Dartmoor. This is 'The Unfolding' made i…

Here at WASD we recently ran an article - Big in Berlin - about how Torquay was a favoured location for a series of German TV movie romances. The Germans aren’t the only Europeans to use the Bay a…

Here at WASD we like to remember past residents of Torquay. We also have a fondness for books that feature our great town by the sea. One of these novels was written by the now largely forgotten J…