History of Torquay - Disturbances and Continued Growth (mid-19th Century)

Disturbances and Continued Growth (mid-19th Century)

In the 1840s railway mania hit Torquay, it is difficult for us now to imagine how important railways were to the 19th century, perhaps the situation was best described by a noted English historian G.M. Trevelyan who wrote: "The railways were England's gift to the world." In fact, a large proportion of the world's trains still roll along tracks manufactured in the last century with the words 'Made in Birmingham' stamped on them.

The people of Torquay knew that the railways would bring visitors and prosperity and they wanted the railway to come to their town. Finally, on 18 December 1848, Torre railway station (some distance from the sea) was opened and Torquay was connected to the rest of the country for the first time in its history. By 1850 the town was calling itself "The Queen of Watering Places" and "The Montpellier of England". Between 1841 and 1871, the population of the town rose by over 5,000 in each decade.

On a Saturday morning in 1852 a town meeting decided to continue the railway down to the sea, to the harbour. The people at the meeting imagined Torquay as an industrial town, importing raw materials through the harbour and transporting finished articles inland. This decision caused great controversy, and in the afternoon of the same day another meeting was held cancelling the decision of the morning and deciding to continue the railway to the sea but not to the harbour. As a result Torquay kept its character as a tourist town and became the place it is today. The new railway station was opened on 2 August 1859 with the line to Paignton, but remained a distance away from the town centre and harbourside, although ideally placed for Torre Abbey Sands.

The railways also had a great effect on the surrounding towns and countryside, and as the years passed Torquay grew in importance because of its railway links, to the detriment of many of the formerly important towns of Devon as the trains passed by them without stopping, taking their former prosperity with them. Within decades these towns had died economically and their populations migrated away, many to the growing conurbation of Torquay boosting its population further.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an important figure in Torquay's history during this period, he built the nearby Atmospheric railway and the rail links to Torquay, and had begun buying up large areas of the Watcombe district of Torquay where he had planned to retire in his old age, but he died early and never reached his retirement.

While the well-to-do and privileged enjoyed life in the Lincombes and Warberries and other desirable locations with pleasing vistas, the labouring classes of Torquay lived below in overcrowded tenements, such as in George Street, Swan Street and Pimlico. These foetid dwellings in alleyways with open sewers were the homes of the unemployed and the domestic servants, labourers, artisans and others who, although they made the town tick, had to live in conditions where hunger and sanitary problems were a constant threat. In one year 66 lives were lost in six weeks in a cholera epidemic.

It is little wonder that many desperate Devonians tried their luck abroad, with the sailing ship Elizabeth, Isabella and Margaret taking emigrants from Torquay Harbour to America and Canada. Those they left behind faced a bleak future of low pay in insecure employment with few rights. The basic diet of working-class families in those days consisted mainly of bread and whatever else could be had, usually cheese and a few vegetables, so when the staple food supply was scarce or too expensive to buy then just surviving was made even harder.

In 1846 the potato crop failed and there was a bad harvest, resulting in the price of bread going up steeply and causing 'a great distress among the poor', especially in Ireland where famine followed. But while affluent Torquinians collected over £4,000 for the relief of the Irish, many Devonians were less than happy about their own situation and decided to do something about it. Rumours of disturbances had spread around the town but no heed had been taken, so when at 7.30 p.m. on May 17 a crowd assembled in Lower Union Street the authorities were caught off guard as attacks were made on bakers' shops and women carried off the spoils in their aprons. As night drew on the rioters took advantage of the dark.

Several thousand 'roughs' then swarmed down Fleet Street and attacked other shops, smashing shutters and windows as they went. Then they turned and marched to Torre, at the top of the town, before they were finally challenged by a posse of tradesmen headed by two magistrates. During the ensuring violent confrontation the Riot Act was read and those who had been taken prisoner were locked up in the Town Hall. The following day a party of 60 navvies who were working on the railway just outside of Torquay marched down to the Town Hall to free their comrades who had been arrested. After a tense standoff their leader, James Hart, was seized and coastguards and 40 members of the 5th Fusiliers, just arrived from Exeter, helped restore order.

A report in the Torquay and Tor Directory on May 21, 1847 accepted that 'the high price of provisions' had provoked the disturbances, but displayed little magnanimity in claiming that 'steps had been taken for relieving the sufferings of the poor and it will be far more grateful to the right-minded poor to know that the relief which we trust will shortly be afforded to them was not exacted by intimidation, but voluntarily determined upon before'. A handbill circulated at the same time, headed 'To The Poor of Tor and Torquay', informed them that the crop failures were down to His hand, and that they should put their faith in 'God's Providence'.

In January 1854, further rioting occurred at Barnstaple, Tiverton and Exeter, when the military was called out again. Trouble had been anticipated in Torquay but this time the magistrates took the precautions to nip it in the bud, though five years later an attempt was made to burn down the Town Hall.

There was a gruesome footnote to the 1847 riot when, in 1863, a shallow grave was found in the Torre area containing the remains of a young man who was said to have been killed on that fateful night 16 years earlier and in the following year two more skeletons were unearthed in the town.