Torquay modelled itself on other places. Indeed, the resort has been successfully impersonating the warmer and more exotic since its very beginnings. We remain, as we insist on telling everyone, the English Riviera.
But Torquay was always much more than just another seaside town. We were the recreation epicentre of the largest empire in history, holding sway over 412 million people, 23 per cent of the world’s population. As part of that exploration, colonial, and imperial mission, we sent many of our sons and daughters to foreign lands and, as a consequence, the influence of Torquay and Torbay still turns up in some unexpected places.
There, for example, a couple of coastal towns called Torquay in Australia.
Torquay in the southeastern state of Victoria was named by an early settler in a place called Spring Creek. This was James Follett (1838-1899), “of Torquay, Devon”. In 1892, at James’ suggestion, Spring Creek became Torquay, presumably without consulting the Wathaurong Aborigines who had already been there for quite some time.
Australia’s Torquay was a popular holiday resort in Victorian times, became a quiet seaside town until the 1970's, and then became famous for its surf beaches. The population there today is around 17,000.
There is also another coastal Australian Torquay, in Hervey Bay, Queensland, which has a population of some 6,500. It’s very popular for whale watching apparently.
‘Tor’ is a Celtic term for a rocky outcrop, while quay is a structure where ships can dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Hence, our antipodean cousins can claim their titles are fitting, both communities being on the coast.
This doesn’t appear to be the same for our Canadian relative. Saskatchewan’s Torquay is located just a few miles north of the border to the United States; 1,200 miles and a 20-hour drive from the coast at Vancouver. This flat prairie Torquay doesn’t have a rocky outcrop or any kind of quay.
Here’s the background. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was incorporated on 16 February 1881. Once it was established in the east, the railway expanded into the west and communities sprang up along its branch lines. In 1912 Wesley Shier sold his homestead to the CPR and a hamlet was established: “Since the railroad locomotives needed a good supply of water and this town site had an abundant supply, this led a railroad superintendent’s wife to suggest that the settlement take its name from an English town, Torquay, which is also located beside a good supply of water, namely the English Channel, and thus Torquay got its name.”
Today the ‘Village of Torquay’ has a population of around 250.
Then there’s the legacy of our own Devonshire Bay.
'Torrebay’ is not recorded before 1401 with ‘bay' being a Norman word, probably given by mariners to differentiate our part of the coast.
This appellation and similar aspect inspired the title of a small town and bay in Western Australia. In 1801 the Royal Navy’s Captain Matthew Flinders transferred the name of the Devon base of Admiral Richard Howe’s Channel Fleet, in which he served, almost 10,000 miles to the other side of the earth. Matthew subsequently renamed several Australian features, including Torbay, Torbay Inlet, and Torbay Head.
Back in the nineteenth century we borrowed New Zealand’s cordyline australis, renamed it the Torbay Palm, and adopted it as an emblem of Torquay. In return we lent that nation our name.
The first European landowner in, what is now, a northern suburb of Aukland was Sir John Logan Campbell, the Scottish-born ‘father of Auckland’. Erroneously believing that there was coal in the area, he purchased property in 1864.
The traditional name for the area was ‘Waiake’, meaning ‘Eternal Spring’, but by the early 1930s it was known as Deep Creek. However, due to problems with mail being sent to other similarly named places, the post office's name was changed in 1933 to Torbay. The bay’s Waiake Beach appropriately features a small coastal stack known as the Tor.
There’s also a Torbay on the American continent.
Around 1550 Devon fishermen exploring Newfoundland discovered a bay three miles across. They named it Torbay as it reminded them of the villages they had left four weeks earlier, both places being somewhat similar, with wide-open bays that face in a northeasterly direction.
First mapped in 1615 by John Mason, the area was the original home of many Torbay settlers and was used as a summer fishing station for the following two hundred years. The census of 1677 lists the Cole and Corum families as residing in ‘Tarr-Bay’ and by 1794 the population totalled 108 English and 99 Irish settlers. Edward Feild served as Bishop of Newfoundland from 1844 to 1876 and his journal notes that "there seems to be a little colony of Devon folk in Torbay."
Torbay now has a population of around 8,000 and we can still recognise some of the surnames associated with our own Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. As another reminder of the town’s origin, Newfoundland’s Torbay has an Anstey’s Cove Lane.
It was, incidentally, in Newfoundland during the summer of 1621 that John Nutt turned pirate. John returned to England to operate his own pirate fleet from our Torbay, taking a dozen vessels a week from off the South Devon coast.
If you ever find yourself in the city of Haifa in Israel and it all looks a bit familiar, this is why.
Haifa is the international headquarters for the Baha’i faith which began in Persia in the mid-nineteenth century. Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957) was the Baha’i head from 1921 until his death. Referred to as ‘The Guardian’, he held the authority to interpret the writings of the three central figures of the religion and to define legislative authority.
From the autumn of 1920 through to December 1921 he was a student at Oxford’s Balliol College, and he spent some of his time travelling. He visited Torquay and stayed in Abbey Road.
During his time in the Bay, he admired Kings Gardens by Torre Abbey. He saw “a park with deep red-coloured paths… that impressed upon his mind the beauty of red paths and green lawns and ornamental vases in conjunction and inspired him years later to duplicate them in his own beautiful gardens at Bahji and on Mount Carmel.”
Between 1948-53, Shoghi Effendi oversaw a major enlargement to the Mount Carmel shrine which was designed in the neo-classical style by architect William Sutherland Maxwell. Today Haifa’s Bahá’i World Centre, the Shrine and gardens, completed in 2001, attract pilgrims from all parts of the world. This remarkable garden was inspired by a small park in Torquay and replicated on a massive scale on the distant shores of the Mediterranean.
So how far can we actually go to still see the influence of Torquay folk?
At St Mary Magdalene Church by Castle Circus is a memorial, decorated with a mariner’s compass and dividers. It commemorates the life of the great Arctic explorer, scientist, and clergyman William Scoresby (1789-1857) who died in Torquay.
William’s books on his experiences helped lay the foundations of modern arctic geography and many of his papers, logbooks, and instruments are held at the museum in his hometown of Whitby.
In recognition of William’s achievements, places around the world have been named after him. There’s: Scoresby Land in Greenland; a Melbourne suburb; Norway’s Scoresby Island; and the William Scoresby Archipelago and Cape Scoresby in the Antarctic.
And if it’s a clear night, look upwards. You may just be able to see the crater ‘Scoresby’ on the moon.
Kevin Dixon is the author of ‘Torquay: A Social History’.
