Nostalgia: When Royals came to the Bay

There have been a number of Royal Visits to Torbay , the majority focused on Torquay rather than Paignton.

The first recorded visit was by William of Orange who following his arrival at Brixham in 1688 was said to have travelled to Paignton and possibly spent the night here.  Invited to become King by the protestant leaders, the aim was to stop the catholic King James from passing the crown to his son.  William’s claim to the throne was somewhat tenuous but having married King James daughter Mary and being a protestant, he was considered the best choice.  His passage to London from Brixham was slow and met little opposition. This later became known as the Glorious, or bloodless revolution.

There are no recorded visits to Torbay during the reigns of the Hanoverian kings but following the death of William 4th his niece Victoria became Queen and much changed. Before becoming Queen Victoria visited Torquay in 1833. She stepped ashore on what has now become Victoria Parade in Torquay and this was later named in her honour.

In 1890 Princess Louise visited Torquay accompanied by her Husband the Marquis of Lorne. She laid the memorial stone for the Princess Pier and stayed one night at the Imperial Hotel. Princess Louise was the 6th child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Her life was mired in scandal and she was alleged to have given birth to an illegitimate son in 1867 who was adopted by the son of the Queen’s doctor.

Queen Mary made her first visit in 1914 when she visited the American women’s war relief hospital at Oldway.  Paris Singer had offered Oldway Mansion as use as a war hospital. It contained 150 beds but during the battle of the Somme in 1915 the number of patients rose to 250 due to the high number of causalities. Queen Mary returned  in 1915 accompanied by her husband George 5th. when they visited the Town Hall War Hospital. King George returned in 1922 to review the Atlantic  fleet from the royal yacht .

Edward the 8th while still the Prince of Wales, visited Devon in 1919. He was not impressed and allegedly particularly disliked Newton Abbot, Ashburton and Princetown.  He met the Bishop of Exeter who he later was said to have described as mad and revolting.  Clearly, he did not enjoy his visit. In 1931 on 29th May he returned and visited Torbay Hospital.  

George 6th visited Torbay in 1942 where he took the salute from Air Force trainees stationed in Torquay.  He returned later that year with his wife Queen Elizabeth during a tour of the country designed to raise morale

Queen Elizabeth visited Torbay during her tour of the country in 1956. She visited again during her silver jubilee tour in 1977. She paid a further visit in 1988 the tercentenary celebrations of the landing of William of Orange in Brixham. During this visit she also went to the Riviera Centre, Torre Abbey and Torquay Harbour.

Prince Philip visited Paignton Zoo in 1978 as part of a larger tour in his capacity of president of the World Wildlife Fund. He visited the Zoo again in 1998 to open the Ape Centre.

Paignton Heritage Society is working hard to preserve the Heritage of Paignton and make as much information as possible easily accessible to the general public.  The Archive centre in Paignton Library is being constantly improved, much work is still to be done, but our knowledgeable volunteers are available to assist in any way they can on open days. The centre is open from 11am, to 3pm on Mondays Thursdays and Saturdays.

 Our website is being redesigned and is much improved. Well worth a visit www.paignton heritage society.co.uk

The Junior Explorers group aimed at children 8 to 13 has been unavoidably put on hold, however it is hoped that this will be up and running early in the new year

Always pleased to involve children of all ages in local history we were delighted to be asked to give a presentation to year 2 children from Oldway school.  The illustrated talk will be centred around the Paignton Pudding and the coming of the railway. Hopefully the children will enjoy the presentation which will take place in the Library on 17th, 18th and 20th. of this month.

Our next meeting is Thursday 20th 7pm Gerston Chapel Torquay Road Paignton.  Our speaker is Paul Hawthorne and his subject will be: Oldway - the lost photos; it sounds fascinating.

Everybody welcome – entry £5 (£4 to members of PHS) and includes tea/coffee.