Kevin Dixon

Regenerate Torquay Town Centre before building on more green fields? -

Late at night, despite the remnants of Harbourside revelries, it can be unaccountably alien. Modern Torquay hardly knows pure darkness or silence any more, yet when the light fades, ordinary sounds acquire sinister meanings and our roads echo with emptiness. The night creatures emerge, our town&rsqu...

Before the nineteenth century, most people didn't need maps. They rarely ventured far from their homes. But for well-off coach passengers, there were strip maps showing roads and their side turnings. We have one from 1720 of 'The Road from Dartmouth' which includes directions to ‘Brixum’...

During the ‘Swinging Sixties’, Torquay found itself on the frontlines of a series of culture wars. These were debates between groups and individuals as they struggled for dominance, or just to be heard and recognised, all against a backdrop of an optimistic decade that bled into the more...

“You’re now at Castle Circus, there isn’t a castle. Drive past the Haldon Centre, turn left and pass the Job Centre into Pimlico and the Pickwick, behind Woolworths, Menzies and M&S. Double back at the GPO roundabout and up past the Odeon Cinema. Keep the Falcon, EJs, and The M...

“Some were in the sea, some were lying stretched out in the sun, and some were anointing themselves carefully with oil”, Agatha Christie’s ‘Evil Under the Sun’ (1941) It was during the 1920s that people in Torquay started taking their clothes off. They had decided that ...

“The best friend man can possibly have”, Voltaire (1764) Do good dogs go to Heaven? Tucked away around the back of Torre Abbey is a pet cemetery. It’s a kind of place that’s less scary than Stephen King and more melancholy than Secret Garden, with ancient walls and locked doo...

FROM a small fishing village of around 800 at the end of the eighteenth century, 50 years later Torquay’s population stood at over 11,000. By the beginning of the twentieth century, it was over 33,000. The Georgian and Victorian resort’s offer of employment and accommodation attracted th...

Every September thousands of volunteers across England organise events in the nation's largest festival of history and culture.

Is there a secret tunnel connecting Torre Abbey and the enigmatic St Michael’s Chapel? That’s the Torquay legend that has been around for decades or even centuries. But is it true? The obvious first question concerns the real logistical problems of digging a tunnel over half a mile long ...