Encyclopedia
Torquay is a town on the south coast of
England in the county of
Devon which has extended along the coast of
Torbay to the extent that it is now inextricably intermingled with the neighbouring town of
Paignton. In the 19th century it became a fashionable
seaside resort, renowned for its healthy climate it gained a nickname as the
English Riviera.
Although it has been suggested that Torquay roughly signifies '
Thor's Harbor' , a more likely root is the
Old English word
torr , which now occurs as
tor or
torre in place names in Devon and
Cornwall.
History of Torquay
The first major building in Torquay was
Torre Abbey, a
Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1196. Torquay remained a minor settlement until the
Napoleonic wars, when Torbay was frequently used as a sheltered anchorage by the Channel Fleet, and relatives of officers often visited Torquay. The mild climate of Torquay attracted many visitors who considered the town a convalescence retreat where they could recover from illness away from the cold winters of more Northerly or Easterly locations. The population of Torquay grew rapidly from 838 in 1801, to 11,474 in 1851.
The second phase in the expansion of Torquay began when Torre railway station was opened on 18th December 1848. The improved transport connections resulted in thw rapid grwoth of Torquay at the expension of nearby towns not on
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's
railways. The more central
Torquay railway station was open on 2nd August 1859. After the growth of the preceding decaded, Torquay was granted borough status in 1872. Previously regard as a convalescence retreat, Torquay began to encourage healthy visitors, and 1902 saw the first advertising campaign to market Torquay to summer tourists.
During
World War I, military hospitals were sited in Torquay - many survivors from the
Battle of Gallipoli recuperated in the town - and it was also used as a troop staging area. In September 1915
King George V and Queen Mary visited. After the war had ended,
Great Western Railway launched an advertising campaign to attract tourists to Torquay, and this helped the town grow to a major South coast resort.
During
World War II Torquay was regarded as safer than the towns of South East England, and played host to evacuees from the
London area. Torquay did still suffer bomb damage during the war, mainly from planes dumping excess loads after participating in the Plymouth Blitz. In the months leading up to
D-Day thousands of
US Army personnel arrived in Torquay, and the 3204th Quartermaster Service Company were billeted in Chelston and
Cockington. The last air raid on Torquay took place on 29th May 1944.
The water sport events of the
1948 Summer Olympics were held in Torquay, with the
Olympic flame being brought from
London to Torre Abbey Gardens. Torquay had aimed to be the offical warm up venure for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but these will now take place in
Weymouth.
Since World War II, the nature of tourism in the United Kingdom has changed significantly. Incrasing wealth has meant that holidays abroad are now commonplace, and coastal towns are now more popular for short stays as part of a touring holiday. Recently Torquay has seen an increase in foreign visitors, and is now a major destination for foreign exchange students.
Eponymous Royal Navy ships
Throughout its history Torquay and the bay it is situated within has had a number of ships named after it:
- HMS Torbay , 80-gun second-rate which participated in the Battle of Vigo Bay, 1702 a naval battle of the coast of Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession.
- HMS Torbay , destroyer
- HMS Torbay , submarine
- HMS Torquay , Whitby Class Frigate Type 12. Torquay participated in the Suez War.
- HMS Torbay Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine of the Royal Navy. Laided down December 3, 1982, Launched March 8, 1985 and commissioned February 7,1987.
Geography
Torquay is situated on the South West coast of England, forming one third of Torbay, and is primarily on the western side of the bay. It has a mild
microclimate, and cabbage trees are a notable feature of the area. They were introduced into the area in 1820 from
New Zealand and since then have flourished. There are currently thousands throughout the town.
Torquay is also set along a coastline renowed for its beaches, having no fewer than nine popular beaches. The high standards of water quality and beach facilities mean that many carry coveted awards, including no fewer than three European Blue Flags - more than any other resort in the UK. The nine main beaches of Torquay, a string of nine beautiful beaches and coves stretched out along the palm lined coast, are as follows:
- Maidencombe Beach
- Watcombe Beach
- Oddicombe Beach
- Babbacombe Beach
- Anstey's Cove
- Meadfoot
...
Beach
- Torre Abbey Sands
- Corbyn Sands
Transport
Torquay has two railway stations.
Torquay railway station is situated near the sea, close to Torre Abbey Sands. Torre railway station is situated a little inland adjacent to the road leading to
Newton Abbot. Not all trains stop at Torre. There is a bus service that goes from Newton Abbot to Brixham stopping off in Torquay and Paignton, this is the 12 service, if you wish to go to South Devon College, you would have to get on the 12A service, that also goes from Newton Abbot to Brixham, but stopes off in Torquay, Paignton and South Devon College.
Tourist attractions
Numerous tourist attractions vie for a share of the resort's visitors including Britain's most important Stone Age site, Kents Cavern which was home to early man for some 700,000 years and where tourists can visit this subterranean wonderland. The floor is composed of several strata, with remains indicating the prehistoric coexistence there of humans and now-extinct animals. The Rev. J. McEnery explored the cave and put forth the coexistence theory. The cave was extensively explored from 1865 to 1880 by William Pengelly, who found proof to support McEnery's hypothesis. The Caves have attracted many famous people, among them
Agatha Christie,
Beatrix Potter,
King George V of the
United Kingdom and
Haile Selassie who was so impressed with his visit that he gave his guide, Leslie Powe a
gold sovereign.
Living Coasts, another popular Torquay attraction, is built on Beacon Quay which has existed since 1680. In 1857 the Bath's Saloons complex was built on the promontory overlooking Beacon Cove. This included a ballroom, concert hall and sunlit conservatory and private bathing facilities with, underneath, a large public swimming bath open to the sea. The beautiful stone arches of this public bath can still be seen today and have been cleverly incorporated into the shop at Living Coasts.Development of the site, as a marine animal exhibit was first proposed in the early part of 1999. It was in response to a call from Torbay Borough Council for submissions from interested parties. The project, developed by Kay Elliott architects, included an exhibit to house marine birds, rather than fish, due to the need to avoid duplicating the exhibits at the
National Marine Aquarium in
Plymouth. The project was subsequently taken on by
Paignton Zoo Environmental Park and named Living Coasts.
Another old favourite of tourists, is the Babbacombe Model Village. Opened in 1963 it has attracted children and adults of all ages for generations and is considered one of the best examples of a model village in England.
Paignton Zoo is situated in the nearby town of
Paignton , this is a top tourist atrraction and one of the best zoos in the country currently. It has undergone extensive rebuilding in the past decade, marking a movement from the old way of caged animals to displaying animals in exhibits as close to their natural habitat as possible. This renovation has been made possible thanks to investment by the European Regional Development Fund and the zoo itself.
The
Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway is another top attraction operating heritage steam trains over part of the railway referred to in this article, from
Paignton to Kingswear
The Princess Theatre is a popular venue in the town.
Professional sports
Torquay is represented in the English
Coca-Cola Football League Two by
Torquay United F.C.. The team plays their home matches at
Plainmoor and has spent its entire history in the bottom two leagues of English football. The 2004/05 season resulted in the team being relegated from League One to League Two, a reverse of their fortunes of the previous season. While 2005/06 saw them escape relegation from
The Football League only on the last day of the season and after two changes of manager in as many months.
Torquay also hosted the World Snooker European Open 2003 at the Palace Hotel, which was won by
Ronnie O'Sullivan, in the same year the town also hosted the World Snooker Championship Qualifiers, also held at the Palace Hotel.
Torquay in English culture
A number of sketches for
Monty Python's Flying Circus were filmed on location in and around both Torquay and neighbouring
Paignton. It was while staying in Torquay at the Gleneagles Hotel with the Python team in 1971, that
John Cleese found inspiration for
Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom [i] made by the BBC [i] and first broadcast on BBC2 [i] i...
, a popular
sitcom made in the 1970s. Incidents during the Pythons' stay are said to include the owner, Donald Sinclair, having thrown
Eric Idle's suitcase out of the window thinking it was a bomb. Cleese later described the eccentric owner as, "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met", although Mr Sinclair's widow has since said her husband was totally misrepresented in the comedy. Although it is claimed that location filming for
Fawlty Towers was actually done in
Cambridge,
Berkshire and
Bedfordshire, in the episode "
Gourmet Night", there is film footage of Basil in a shopping area where shopfronts show Torquay addresses and phone numbers.
As of 2006, Torbay Council are considering plans to erect a statue of characters from the show by the harbour.
Torquay is the birthplace of the crime novelist
Agatha ChristieDemographics
The
2001 census confirmed Torquay's reputation as a retirement town, with 26% of the population of 62,963 over sixty years old, compared to a figure of 21% for
England as a whole. Those under twenty years old accounted for 23% of the population, compared to a figure of 25% for the whole of England.
From the 1920s until 1997
Torbay constituency was a safe Tory seat until Adrian Sanders overturned spy novel writer Rupert Allason's majority by just 12 votes, widened to 6,708 in 2001.
During the
2005 general election, Conservative leader
Michael Howard visited the town. However, Sanders retained the seat with 40.8% of the votes . A swing of 9.7% away from the Liberal Democrats was split between the Conservatives , Labour - who gained a substantial increase in their vote as support for Lib Dems in 97 and 01 moved back and
UKIP, whose bigwig
Graham Booth improved on his deposit-losing 2001 performance with a 4.7% increase in his vote.
In 2005, a referendum was held to appoint Torbay's first Elected Mayor. In the ensuing election in October 2005, the winning candidate was a former Liberal Parliamentary Candidate, Nicholas Bye, who won the election as a Conservative.
Education
Torquay is host to many primary and secondary schools of all variations, including private and Catholic based schools.
There are four main secondary schools in the town. One is Torquay Community College, previously known as Audley Park. This school has had its troubles in the past and has in the past two years come out of governmental special measures. Its 2004 exam results are available
The other mainstream secondary school in Torquay is Westlands Secondary School and Technology College. This is a combined secondary college and 6th form that takes students of all variations and has recently moved to a brand new modern building. Its 2004 exam results are available
The other three state secondary schools of Torquay are more selective than the previous two. They are St Cuthbert Mayne School, a secondary school exclusively available to followers of Roman Catholic and Church of England faiths, and Torquay Boys' Grammar School and Torquay Grammar School for Girls' which are available only to those that pass the 11+ intelligence test and the schools' own standardised test. The 2004 results for St Cuthbert Mayne school are available , the Boys' Grammar School results and finally the Girls' Grammar School . There are also a number of private schools in the area including Studley Knowle School and the Abbey School.
For further education, students can either go to one of the sixth forms at the previous mentioned Westlands, St Cuthbert's Mayne or Grammar schools, or they can go to South Devon College which is based in Long Road in Paignton on a new campus which became fully open in Jan 2006.
Should students pass through school or college and wish to continue in their education at university, they will have to leave Torquay. Should they wish to continue living in Torquay they have the option of applying to either
Exeter or
Plymouth universities, each roughly an hour train journey from Torquay train station.
Crime
| Offences | Total | Rate per 1,000 population | Average rate per 1,000 population in England & Wales |
|---|
| Violence Against The Person | 1,408 | 11.2 | 10.9 |
| Sexual Offences | 104 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Robbery Offences | 72 | 0.6 | 1.5 |
| Burglary Dwelling Offences | 1,014 | 8.0 | 6.5 |
| Theft Of Motor Vehicle | 293 | 2.3 | 5.0 |
| Theft From Vehicle | 1,352 | 10.7 | 10.9 |
|
Information taken from 2001/2002 crime figures in Torbay, available
Healthcare
Torquay's healthcare needs are seen to by
NHS-run Torbay hospital which is situated on the main road out of Torquay and the private, non-emergency Mount Stuart on St Vincents Road.
References
See also
- Babbacombe Cliff Railway
- Kents Cavern
External links
History
