Category: Chelston Heritage Project

The Bigge Fountain

A fountain with the text 'Given by Francis and Elizabeth Bigge of Hennapyn 1897'

Taleblazers was an idea that Kev and I had been discussing vaguely for several years, but it was only in lockdown that we started to take it more seriously. The Bigge Fountain, officially called simply Chelston Drinking Fountain, played a big part in getting our social enterprise off the ground.

Victoria and I live very close to one another, so when we were allowed to meet in twos to go for no more than an hour’s walk we would regularly set off together to stretch our legs. Our little rambles took us all around Chelston, through the arterial streets connecting up its green parks, never quite as far as the sea front for fear of being asked our business by the police. As we walked things would catch our eye and we would wonder what they were. What was the little marker stone outside the school? How old is the Chelston Manor? Was the first occupant of Sharon House really called Sharon? And as we started to answer these questions with the power of Google, we shared our snippets of information with one another, and the idea of the Chelston Heritage Trail started to form in our minds.

We always felt a bit sad walking past the Bigge Fountain, next to the little green where Walnut Road meets Old Mill Road. It has been there since 1897, when Chelston was going through a rush of development and, presumably, a burst of civic pride. A hundred metres to the north the new church of St Matthews was nearing completion, and the fountain is sited at the bottom of a little avenue of lime trees that leads up to its door. It’s a nice spot to have a quiet moment to imagine upper Chelston as it would have been back then: the age of the automobile has left the area looking a little less grand than it would have been in Victorian times.

A dragon's head looming over the fountain
The head of a Celtic beast forms the spout of the Bigge Fountain

The fountain was installed by the remarkable Elizabeth and Francis Bigge of Hennapyn (the largest villa in Chelston until its demolition). Francis Bigge was born in Northumberland in 1820, joined the Navy at 15 and before he turned 20 years old, doubtless helped on his way by good family connections, was living as a pioneer in Australia. He ‘squatted’ on Crown Land with his brother, survived encounters with escaped convicts and eventually became a politician (the camp he originally founded grew and is now the city of Grantchester). He returned to England briefly in 1853 and married Elizabeth before returning to Australia where he enjoyed a long political career before returning to England in 1873. They retired to Cockington where Elizabeth was one of the leading lights of the local anti-vivisection movement. Their love of animals is well represented on the fountain: the water spout is a great swan-neck curve of metal which ends in the head of some fantastical Celtic beast, while below there are water bowls for dogs to drink from. The fountain is grade II listed, and the designation includes the railings and green behind – now mostly occupied by an electricity substation. I always feel a little sad when I visit, this formerly grand little meeting spot now utterly transformed by the arrival of the automobile, flooded by rivers of tarmac, even the fountain itself now normally hidden behind a parked car.

These places however are fundamental to our understanding of our ‘home patch’. They remind us of the rich lives of people that once lived in our part of town, the people who developed it and shaped it, even as their life stories fade from living memory. It’s natural to aspire to leave some kind of legacy, a tangible impact on your community, something that people will look at and remember you. The Bigge Fountain is more than just a fountain. It’s a fragment of the Victorian era looking back at us, a reminder of the days when these streets belonged to horses and dogs and people, who would have all stopped for a refreshing drink as they passed by.

25-30 Rosery Road

A row of houses made of deep red bricks.

Next time you take a stroll down Old Mill Road, turn right at the bottom opposite the park into Rosery Road, and you may notice something strange. Number 25-30 are superficially similar to the other houses, but they are built of a different colour brick to the houses either side. Look more closely and you’ll see that the lintels above the doors and windows also have a slightly different pattern. Once you’ve noticed, it’s glaringly obvious that something has happened to those few houses in the middle.

Walking these quiet streets now, it seems hard to believe that World War Two ever came to Chelston. According to a log kept at St Marychurch Fire Station, Torquay was raided by the Luftwaffe no less than 21 times, most horrifically in May 1943 when 40 people were killed, including 23 children at Sunday School in St Marychurch. It is hard to imagine the terror that must have accompanied every one of the 643 air raid warnings that rang out over Torquay.

A log of German air raids from St Marychurch Fire Station
A log of German air raids from St Marychurch Fire Station

Chelston’s worst attack was a few months earlier, on 4th September 1942 just before 7pm. A German plane flew over Torquay town centre, spraying people with machine gun fire on Tor Hill Road and a little further on targeting the railway with two high-explosive bombs. Neither hit its intended target. One overshot slightly and hit the houses on Rosery Road, the other landed another hundred or so metres on at Dornafield, just above the shops on Old Mill Road. A photo which has appeared in the ‘Bygones’ section of local newspaper the Herald Express shows how complete the destruction was.

Local police surveying the damage caused by the Rosery Road bomb
The destruction of houses in Rosery Road, 4th September 1942

The archive at the Devon Heritage website lists the civilian casualties of World War Two, and thanks to this list we have a record of those who died in the bombing:

  • Adelaide Mabel Baxter, aged 63, died at Dornaford
  • Beatrice Mabel Bickford, 49, at no 26 Rosery Road
  • Midgley Booth, 59, at no 28
  • Florence Catherine Gillard, 38, at no 27
  • Minnie Gladys Martin, 50, a civilian air raid warden who lived on Sherwell Valley Road
  • Frederick Webber, 64, who lived on nearly Mallock Road

Joan Brotherton (15), sisters Cecily and Mona Withers-Lancashire (56 and 57), Edith Fogwell (68), Annie Louise Harris (56), and Mabel Margaret Hogg (31) all died in the same raid on Tor Hill Road. Doris Beatrice Annie Coad, 36, was injured and later died, but I have not found a record of where she was injured.

Although no deaths are recorded on this date in the St Marychurch log, Joseph Herbert Large is recorded as having died aged 77 at 28 Rathmore Road in Chelston on 13th February 1943.

The story of Frederick Webber is a poignant one. Born in 1888, his parents moved into Mallock Road from Taunton some time after the street was built in the early 1900s and presumably he either moved with them or inherited the house. His elder brother, Private Edward Courtney Webber, served in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment in the First World War and died in August 1918 aged 35. Frederick and Edward’s parents lost one of their sons in each of the world wars.

We are particularly interested in the backgrounds of the above people, and would love to hear from anyone who can add anything to the story of this tragic day.

Chelston Heritage Map

Do you know where the Bigge Fountain is located in Chelston? Where the home of Chelston’s first fire station was? Or who built Cockington primary school in 1892?

Taleblazers have been busy with our Chelston Heritage Map project, for which we received funding for from the Torbay Small Grants Lottery Fund and the Localgiving – Magic Little Grants. We had been researching places in Chelston to feature on our map and engaged the community to have their say on which historical places of Chelston to include. We started to draw multiple versions of the map and write up the text to go with it and we are pleased to say that we are nearly there. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic we had to delay the launch and we hope to have our launch day in the late summer or early autumn. The Chelston Heritage Map day would be a chance for the community to walk around Chelston on a free guided tour where we will share the history and story about the selected places. If you are interested in this guided walk, please email us at; rich@taleblazers.org.uk

Once we have a launch day, we will share this information with you all and in order for us to keep the numbers suitable you will be able to book onto the free event via Eventbrite. We aim to run 3 guided walks on the launch day for up to 12 individuals per walk. An additional of 3 free walks will be added on Eventbrite in the autumn in case you missed the walks on our launch day.

The pictures below are from some of the places we have picked for the Chelston Heritage Map, can you spot where they are in Chelston?

Finally, we hope you are enjoying the last bit of summer sunshine and that you will come along to our launch day!

#Taleblazers #Devon #Torbay #Torquay #Chelston #Outdoor #Nature #Map #ChelstonHeritageMap #TorbayCouncil #TorbaySmallGrantsLotteryFund #Localgiving #MagicLittleGrant

Trails Day & Chelston Heritage Map

What a beautiful weekend it has been and we were celebrating Trails Day which took place on Saturday the 5th.

What is Trails Day you may wonder? Well, in 1968 American president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Trails Act into law which established a network of trails for people to use. Trails Day celebrates the explored and the unexplored by getting out into nature to discover and to rediscover. This could be by walking, hiking, cycling or on a horse back. For example, we have the South West Coast Path which one could follow to discover hidden gems and beautiful views.

Taleblazers is a CIC which focus children and young people as well as the communities of Dartmoor and south Devon, we are passionate about storytelling and the outdoors. In April, we were awarded our first grant from the Torbay Small Grants Lottery Fund for our project the Chelston Heritage Map. Our own trail which you could walk. We have been researching places in Chelston to feature on the map, we have drawn multiple versions and we have engaged the community of Chelston to have their say on which historical places of Chelston to include. We are soon to launch this project so stay tuned!

#Trailsday #Taleblazers #Torbay #SouthWest #Devon #Outdoor #Nature #TorbayCouncil #TorbaySmallGrantsLotteryFund

The Chelston Heritage Map

Sherwell (Pretty) Park in Chelston

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have been given some funding from the Torbay Small Grants Lottery Fund to allow us to start work on our planned Chelston Heritage Map!

Sherwell (Pretty) Park in Chelston
Sherwell (Pretty) Park in Chelston

There have been people living in Chelston for a very long time – stone axes, flint scrapers and spear heads have all been found in the area which suggests may have been people passing through here up to six thousand years ago. In the Medieval period it was part of the manor of Cockington and the name Chilestone first appeared in the 13th century. The Cary family owned Chelston up until 1654, when it passed to the Mallocks. Amazingly, the Chelston Manor Hotel was originally a dower house for Cockington manor and it may even have been lived in by some of the Carys. Nearby Chelston Cottage is also very old and parts of it date from the 16th century.

Chelston, though, broadly remained a quiet, rural area. It was in the Victorian period, mainly in a burst of activity around 1880-1900, that most of the Chelston we know was built. Some large villas had already been built and all the things a young community needs were added – houses, churches, schools, shops, hotels, parks. The grandest of these landmarks are now listed buildings and the parks have avoided development. Chelston remains a green, friendly and pleasant place to live today.

Our heritage map will celebrate this by picking out some of the key locations from Chelston’s history and joining them together into a walking route. This will be hand-drawn by the Taleblazers team in a heritage style and will have details about each landmark on the reverse. We will then distribute our map free of charge to local schools, shops, pubs and cafes for residents to take themselves on a historic walk of the area in their own time. We hope to have a launch event on Trails Day, Saturday 5th June, when we will be offering guided walks and we will also reach out to local residents who may need support in getting around the route. We hope the walking route will encourage people to get outside and reconnect with one another post-covid, increase a positive connection between residents and their urban landscape and provide opportunities to reduce isolation and improve mental health.

We are broadly basing the geographical area of Chelston on the Torbay Council Ward Map of Cockington and Chelston, taking Chelston’s western boundary as the ridge following Seaway Lane and its continuation. To the east our map will go as far as the physical boundary of Avenue Road. To the north we will, for practical reasons, not go further north than the Haywain pub. Locations we have already identified are:

  • Chelston Manor and Chelston Cottage
  • St Matthews and St Cuthbert Mayne Churches
  • Chelston Cross
  • Chelston Drinking Fountain
  • Torquay Railway Station
  • Cockington Primary School
  • Grand Hotel
  • Location of the Old Mill
  • Pretty Park
  • Rosery Road houses

We don’t want to miss anywhere, so if there is anywhere that you think we should include please let us know!

Though this is a non-commercial activity, we are still looking for support from local businesses to help with production and printing costs and to support the outreach elements of the project. If you think you might be able to help, please get in touch!