Your chance to glimpse into Torbay's past

Paignton’s historic Kirkham House is opening its doors to offer the public the chance to take a step back to the past.

Kirkham is one of many treasured properties to feature in English Heritage’s annual Heritage Open Days.

The Open Days offer a massive festival of history and culture, involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations. 

Every year for 10 days in September the event brings people together to celebrate their heritage, community and history. Stories are told, traditions explored, and histories brought to life. 

It offers the public a chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – and it’s all free.

Near the town centre of Paignton, Kirkham House is a beautifully preserved mediaeval building made of local stone probably built in the 15th century. 

It stands in a crowded back street opposite new housing of starkly contrasting character. From outside it is hard to imagine it as it once was, probably rendered and limewashed, and surrounded by buildings of a similar nature. Step inside the house, however, and it is possible to forget some of the 21st-century bustle.

Although once known as the Priest’s House, it is more likely to have been the home of a well-to-do landowning or merchant family as the detail inside suggests it belonged to someone of high status. 

There are no documents to tell us exactly when or by whom it was built. The carving on the woodwork suggests a 14th-century date, but the layout of the house is more typical of the 15th century, when a growing desire for privacy led to the creation of separate rooms for different domestic activities. It has the traditional three-room plan found in rural farmhouses of this date.

Today, it is filled with furniture to illustrate traditional English timber and joinery techniques. Kirkham House will be open for Heritage Open Days between 11am – 4pm on September 7,8, 14 and 15.

The Paignton Heritage Society will be offering free tours during these dates, no need to book. For more information visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kirkham-house-paignton.