Day trip to Paignton & Brixham

Paignton, Devon

Friday, May 18, 2012

 

What became of Thursday? I seem to have lost a day.

 

I was about to take my first bus trip from Plymouth. Destination: Paignton, Devon. £7 return with First Devon & Cornwall.

There was no point in getting a week's pass, it turned out, because the three areas I wanted to visit while based in Plymouth are each handled by different bus companies. Buses leave from Bretonside Station or above/behind it on either side of a wide, busy street.

Bus travel on this day went like clockwork every step of the way. I went to the station in Plymouth and the bus for Paignton happened to be sitting there.

The route from Plymouth to Paignton passed though some towns that sound familiar because of family history - Plympton, Ivybridge, Totnes. Berry Pomeroy is on an off-shoot - I can't remember if the last was to do with Glenn's family or mine. A route to the south passes through Yealmpton and Modbury.

Paignton, Torquay and Brixham form the area of Torbay which was created in 1998. It is also known as the English Riviera. Of the three, Paignton is the one I would want to visit least. It’s a tacky, seaside tourist town. It’s the kind of place I would avoid but, while others might have the Paignton Zoo on their list of sights to see, there was only one reason I was there - to see the Singer Mansion Glenn had visited at the end of the war. I had wanted to see it with him. Years ago I was in the process of planning a trip to Torquay which also included a visit to Italy but then he had a serious health problem and that was that.

 On a double decker bus
 



 

I believe this was Totnes

Paignton

I found a tourist information office and got directions for the Singer Mansion. Glenn always referred to it by that name but it's actually called Oldway.

There are lots of tacky tourist shops

And lots of places to stay

I walked through a park. The mansion was a little way out of town.

Oldway Mansion is open to the public, no charge. It now houses council offices but it looks like that will change according to a BBC News article from last year:

 

... Torbay Council cannot afford the £7-8m cost of repairs. Now Akkeron Group has got planning permission to turn it into a four star hotel and build 46 homes in the grounds of the Grade II listed building.

Now, at the property, I was about to go in.