Torquay

In Victorian times, Torquay liked to be known as The English Naples, a genteel resort of shimmering white villas set amongst dark green trees and spread, like Rome, across seven hills. It was indisputably the West of England’s premier resort with imposing hotels like the Imperial and the Grand catering for “people of condition” from across Europe. At one time, the town could boast more royal visitors to the square mile than any other resort in the world. Edward VII came here on the royal yacht Britannia and anchored in the bay. Each evening he would be discreetly ferried across to a bay beneath the Imperial Hotel and then conducted to the first floor suite where his mistress, Lily Langtry, was waiting.

The town’s oldest building is Torre Abbey, founded in 1195 but largely remodelled as a Georgian mansion by the Cary family between 1700 and 1750. Within its grounds stand the abbey ruins and the Spanish Barn, a medieval tithe barn so named because 397 prisoners from the Spanish Armada were detained here in 1588. Torre Abbey was sold to Torbay Council in 1930 and, together with its extensive gardens, opened to the public  until 2004 when the building was closed for major refurbishment. It re-opened in the summer of 2008 and now offers an impressive art collection, one of the largest in Devon, visiting exhibitions and a new brass-rubbing centre.

One of Torquay Museum’s most popular attractions is the Agatha Christie Gallery on the second floor, which contains fascinating memorabilia loaned by her daughter. It includes manuscripts, photographs and even one of her fur coats. Dame Agatha was born in Torquay in 1890 and the town has created an Agatha Christie Mile, which guides visitors to places of interest that she knew as a girl and young woman growing up in the town.

The museum also has a pictorial record of Torquay over the past 150 years, and displays chronicling the social and natural history of the area. Amongst the museum’s other treasures are many items discovered at Kents Cavern, an astonishing complex of caves regarded as “one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain”. Excavations here in the 1820s revealed a remarkable collection of animal bones – the remains of mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, grizzly bears, bison and cave lions. These bones proved to be the dining-room debris of cave dwellers who lived here some 30,000 years ago, the oldest known residents of Europe. The caves are open daily, all year, offering guided tours, a sound and light show, a gift shop and refreshment room.

Another popular attraction is Bygones in Fore Street where visitors can wander back in time through a real olde worlde street complete with ironmongers, sweet shop, apothecary’s shop, forge and pub. There are many original Victorian artefacts and other attractions include a giant model railway and railwayana collections, a children’s fantasy land; a World War One exhibit, tearoom and shop.

A fairly new attraction is Living Coasts, which opened in 2003 on Torquay Harbour. It is operated by the same wildlife trust that runs Paignton Zoo and is best described as a coastal zoo that provides a natural habitat for seals, penguins, puffins, auks and sea ducks with the emphasis on the coast and environmental issues. There’s an underwater viewing area, a café and a restaurant with grand views across Tor Bay.

Just a mile or so from Torquay town centre is Cockington Village, a phenomenally picturesque rural oasis of thatched cottages, a working forge, and the Drum Inn designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and completed in 1930. From the village there’s a pleasant walk through the park to Cockington Court, now a Craft Centre and Gallery. Partly Tudor, this stately old manor was for almost three centuries the home of the Mallock family. In the 1930s they formed a trust to preserve “entire and unchanged the ancient amenities and character of the place, and in developing its surroundings to do nothing which may not rather enhance than diminish its attractiveness”. The Trust has been spectacularly successful in carrying out their wishes.

About a mile north of Torquay is another village but this village is one-twelfth life size. Babbacombe Model Village (see panel below) contains some 400 models, many with sound and animation. Created by Tom Dobbins, a large number of the beautifully crafted models have been given entertaining names: Shortback & Sydes, the gents’ hairdresser, for example, Walter Wall Carpets and Jim Nastik’s Health Farm. The site also contains some delightful gardens, including a collection of more than 500 types of dwarf conifer, a 1000 foot long model railway, an ornamental lake stocked with koi carp and much more.