For centuries the northern part of Torbay was populated by a scatter of unremarkable farming and fishing hamlets. By the close of Victoria’s reign in 1901 this was Torquay, the richest town in the nation.
During the eighteenth-century South Devon was much like the rest of England, unchanging and mostly rural. Then in 1776 James Watt built the world’s first efficient steam engine, powering the industrial revolution. By 1850 more than half of England’s population lived in urban areas.
From the 1760s Britain was a global superpower, and had forged an identity based on Protestantism, trade and empire. Industrialisation and the proceeds from the nation’s colonies generated massive concentrations of wealth and created new social classes that stood alongside old family elites.
Those new and established elects expected places for rest and recreation and so a new type of town emerged. Torquay was a product of that demand and opportunity.
From around 800 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Torquay’s population grew slowly to around 6,000 by the mid-1840s. Then came the railway in 1848 transforming the health spa into a popular tourist town. By mid-century the population was over 11,000 and would keep increasing to over 33,000 by 1900, partly by absorbing St Marychurch and Cockington.
Tourism had been a British pastime since the seventeenth century when the wealthy would follow the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. Then the wars with France restricted travelers to a coastline which reminded them of what they were missing, a kind of faux Riviera.
Tourism continued to increase as many began to have more disposable income, while technological advancements made transport more convenient and affordable.
Yet Victorian Torquay was so very different than the Georgian resort.
Victoria came to the throne in 1837, and the period is identified with values around religion, morality, the work ethic, and personal improvement.
But it wasn’t always like that. Following the chaos of the seventeenth century civil wars, Georgian England became known for its hedonism, its openness to sex, its raucous poems, plays and pictures, its rowdiness, gambling, dancing, and general merrymaking. And always its drinking; the reputation of many young men centered on their capacity to drink.
Taking one example of conspicuous change, for centuries people had dressed in brown and green. Then during the eighteenth century, new dyes and jewels came from the colonies. Those able to dressed in many colours, in frilly shirts, lace collars, silk ribbons and wigs, and adopted makeup for both women and men. A stark contrast to the sober Victorian frock coat.
Something had shifted in a few decades.
What created the Victorian worldview is still debated, through events overseas certainly influenced how we saw ourselves.
The loss of the American colonies in 1776 was a humiliating event, viewed by some as another civil war, and the blame was allotted to the loose morals and amateurism of the ruling class.
Between 1740 and 1815 Britain was also at war with France and fearful of invasion. In 1688 William of Orange had landed his army in Brixham and the Bay was seen as particularly vulnerable.
Throughout the nineteenth century invasion scares and rumours of radical subversion often spread in the town. In 1803, for example, orders were given by Torquay’s magistrates to prepare for evacuation should Napoleon strike.
Such militarization of society influenced how men dressed. During the French wars one in six men served in the army or defense militias. Silks and powdered wigs were replaced by plain blue and black coats and shorter hair; practical clothing for a serious age.
Then there was the terrifying example of the revolution across the Channel.
As the town expanded, it became more divided in terms of wealth, politics and outlook. Rural workers were traditionally deferential; the new urban working classes were not. There were serious outbreaks of civil disorder in Torquay in 1847 and 1867 when rising prices caused real distress.
In response to ongoing threats, in 1853 a company of Rifle Volunteers was established in Torquay. As these Volunteers were required to provide their own uniforms and arms, membership was certainly exclusive.
Alongside occasional violence came new ideas about how Britain should be run. The local gentry, however, saw little to differentiate disorder, revolutionary Jacobinism, and democracy.
A working-class Chartist meeting held in Torquay in 1846 caused outrage
So inevitably a working-class Chartist meeting held in Torquay in 1846 caused outrage. It was reported that the speaker tried “to poison the minds of the ignorant against every institution, social and political, by which, under the blessings of providence, the industrious classes of this country have so long been raised above those of every nation upon earth.”
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ in 1792
Other demands for recognition and representation were also emerging. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’, ideas that would gather force in the Bay over the following century, culminating in the campaigns of local Suffragettes.
Religion evolved in response to new challenges.
Most Georgians were casual Christians. After two centuries of wars and persecution, religious enthusiasm was viewed with suspicion.
But the Victorians preached a ‘vital religion’ of evangelical revival, believing that the nation’s prosperity, liberty and empire were rooted in the Protestant faith. To ensure that Torquay led the way in this mission, churches were planted across the townscape: St John the Apostle in 1823; St Mary Magdalene in 1849; St Matthias, Ilsham, in 1857; St Luke’s in 1861; All Saints, Babbacombe, in 1865; All Saints, Torre, in 1867; Christ Church, Ellacombe, in 1868; and Holy Trinity in 1896.
Charles Kingsley visited Torquay in 1854.
Though he was a famous priest of the Church of England, university professor, and social reformer, Charles was prevented from preaching in the town’s churches due to his radical views
Yet even the Anglican church encountered alternative voices. Charles Kingsley was in Torquay in 1854, but local churches were so alarmed by his progressive views that they refused to allow the distinguished clergyman to preach.
In 1829 restrictions on the Nonconforming and Catholic churches were relaxed. Alongside a resurgent Catholicism, came many chapels and houses of other Protestant traditions, giving Torquay’s townscape around sixty places of Christian worship.
The town also saw an upsurge in philanthropic and reforming societies, such as Torquay’s Freemasons (founded in 1810), the Oddfellows (1856), and the Foresters (1858).
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who visited Torquay in 1814, wrote an essay called “The necessity of Atheism’.
Oxford University expelled him, though a century earlier it may well have got him killed
Though at the same time, an expansion in scientific knowledge and free thinking was making it possible to question even the existence of God. In 1811 the poet Shelley, who visited Torquay in 1814, wrote an essay called “The necessity of Atheism’. Oxford University expelled him; a century earlier he may well have been killed.
Fossil collector, dealer, and paleontologist Mary Anning contributed
to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth
In 1812 Mary Anning in nearby Lyme Regis uncovered the skeleton of a Jurassic sea creature which called the biblical creation story into question. Later in the century William Pengelly’s work in Kents Cavern would provide more evidence for human antiquity; while Torquay visitor Charles Darwin ideas about evolution caused a revolution in how we saw the world.
Kent’s Cavern archaeologist William Pengelly was one of the first to contribute proof
that the Biblical chronology of the earth was incorrect
The nineteenth century’s moral climate shifted with social codes being strictly enforced. Plays and literature, including Shakespeare’s works, were cleansed of inappropriate content. Everyday language, class and gender relations were revised. In 1853, for instance, Torquay’s Chief Constable Charles Kilby was perturbed by the “unbecoming manner that young women of the town wander around the thoroughfares without bonnets and shawls”.
Public entertainments and celebrations were restricted or closed. During the 1860s Torquay’s ancient fairs were another victim of this new morality, “At length the disorders to which the fair gave rise compelled the police to prevent the thoroughfares from being disrupted. So the fairs were extinguished.”
Torquay, a new type of leisure town, reflected the changing desires of the nation; from aristocratic fantasy to health resort, to sophisticated retreat for the nation’s elite, and then twentieth century mass tourism.
It was during Victoria’s reign that the classes were separated, not just by culture and class but by space. Torquay became a resort for the Empire’s elite; Paignton a resort for the nation’s middle classes.
Torquay: A Social History by local author Kevin Dixon is available for £10 from Artizan Gallery, Fleet Street, Torquay, or:
https://www.art-hub.co.uk/product-page/torquay-a-social-history-by-kevin-dixon
