Please note this is a historically written document and some of the information is now out of date.  For current information please visit the Town and Lands Website by clicking here.

These charities originated in the 17th century from benefactions by the great and good of Torrington.  Over the centuries public-spirited people have given some of their private fortunes to be used for the benefit of those in need of help. By 1970 the number of charities involved had increased to 22 but in 1971 these were reduced to three by amalgamation.  The Trustees’ ‘Bible’ is a manual entitled ‘A Scheme’ (1971) which gives instructions on how the Trusts and Trustees are to operate.

There are 15 people on the present Board of Trustees: the vicar of the parish church (ex officio), four representatives of the Town Council who are appointed for four years, and ten other co-opted Trustees who are appointed for five years.  The criterion for being a Trustee is to have a specific knowledge of, or interest in, Torrington and candidates are suggested by the existing Board of Trustees.  Their suitability is then debated and they are selected by the Board.

The Trustees meet monthly to determine all matters.  They have contact with the Town Council but operate entirely independently.  They are responsible for a considerable amount of investment in the stock market and in property.  The Trust owns around 40 properties in the town, both commercial and domestic, as well as several acres of land.  The accounts of the Trust are very complicated and are audited by chartered accountants for ultimate approval by the Charity Commission.

Torrington people are favoured when it comes to choosing tenants for the many properties owned by the Trust, including the eight almshouse flats in New Street which recently underwent a £300,000 refurbishment.

On the second Friday in December each year there is an annual distribution of the fund for the sick and aged at the Plough Arts Centre.  In excess of 500 people attend and in 2015 those who were eligible received £15 per household.

The Trustees receive many requests for funding. These are all considered with the circumstances of the individual being taken into account.  Grants totalling up to £60,000 are given annually to various organisations in the town for upkeep and maintenance, such as the parish church, the town hall, the Plough, the town band, scouts, guides, playgroups, chapels, etc.  As well as giving aid to the elderly who are struggling financially, help is also sometimes given to young people for educational or training purposes.

Chris Styles was Steward and Receiver for the Trust for over 40 years in charge of the day-to-day management of all affairs with direct responsibility to the Trustees until his death in 2012.  When I spoke to him, I suggested that it must be very rewarding to be able to distribute largesse to deserving local people and causes.  He agreed that they derive great satisfaction from doing good for the town and that the Trust is like local government used to be, ‘compassionate and people-orientated’.  Ian Newman is now Steward to the Trustees.

A sign on Torrington bowling club’s pavilion says the club was founded in 1645.  According to the club’s archive, evidence for this comes from mention in a paper written at the time of the Civil War that the ‘Prince’s Guards were in the Castle Green’ before the battle of Torrington.  Also that John Howe, chaplain to the Parliamentary army and perpetual curate at Torrington, referred to a game of bowls in a sermon in 1654 implying that his parishioners would be familiar with the game.

Elsewhere in the bowling club archive, it says that in 1717 ‘Castle Green was laid out for recreation – the summer house was built for £3-7s-4d in the Castle Green’.  In 1741 a certain John Squire was paid five shillings for laying turf on the bowling green and the Town Wardens’ Accounts show two payments for ‘Repairing the Bowl House’ in the 1750s.

Bowls must have been played at one time on the part of the commons just beyond the cemetery which is still called ‘the Old Bowling Green’ but no-one seems to know when it transferred to the Castle Hill site.

In 1888 the bowling club was invited to send a team to Plymouth for the tercentenary celebrations of the Armada as Torrington was considered the most active bowling club in Devon.  Their opponents were a team from Leeds and the match was played on Plymouth Hoe with the players dressed in Elizabethan costumes.

1890 saw the first match with Barnstaple at Torrington which Torrington won by 66 points.

In 1892 the archive states, ‘The Greenkeeper was instructed to roll the green three times and cut it twice a week.  He was paid £11 for 22 weeks’ work during the season.  There were 10 Honorary and 75 Members.  The Annual Subscription was five shillings.  (This was equivalent to a week’s wage)’.

On 8th June 1892 there was the first recorded match against Bideford.

In 1903 the English Bowling Association was formed.  Dr W. G. Grace of cricketing fame was instrumental in setting it up.  In 1908 the Devon County Bowling Association (DCBA) was founded and in 1911 a North Devon Division of the DCBA was proposed.  In this year the Torrington green was re-laid.

In 1912 Torrington bowling club won the Devon County Trophy. 

In 1972 the North Devon Triples League was formed.

On 19th July 1988 a Commemorative Armada Bowls Match at the Armada 400 celebrations was played on Plymouth Hoe, once again between Torrington and a team from Leeds.  In 1888 the Original Oak Bowling Team from Leeds had beaten Torrington by two shots but this time (again dressed in 16th century costume) the Devon team had its revenge beating the northerners 99-63.  

In 1987 the old bowling pavilion – a wooden building painted green with a tin roof – was demolished.  Excavations were made to see if any remains of the old castle could be found.  The masonry foundations of part of a domestic building were discovered, the tail of a rampart of clay and stone was located and considerable quantities of medieval pottery were recovered.  The smart new clubhouse, brick built with a tiled roof, was opened in 1988.

Thomas Fowler was an inventor of a calculating machine which was a forerunner to today’s computers.

He was born in Torrington in 1777, son of a cooper, and at 13 was apprenticed to a fellmonger (dealer in hides and skins, especially sheep, who removed the wool or hair from the hides in preparation for tanning).  In his spare time he began to study mathematics.  He was entirely self-taught as money was short and he had no opportunity to study at university.

He built himself a printing press from a plan of his own invention and set up as a printer and book seller.  He did well in this business and subsequently became a clerk and then a partner and finally manager of the only bank in town.  He was also organist at the parish church.

In 1828 he patented a device known as a thermosiphon which was the basis of the modern system of central heating using radiators.  However, patent laws were very weak in those days and his invention was pirated and, as he couldn’t afford legal proceedings, he received no royalties or recognition for his invention.

His talents were recognised by some prominent people in and around Torrington (including Lord Clinton) who did everything they could to encourage him in his work and bring his inventions to public notice.

In 1838 he published his ‘Tables for Facilitating Arithmetical Calculations’ and in 1840, when he was 63, he constructed his first calculating machine.  He considered this to be his greatest achievement.  It was made of wood, as he couldn’t afford to make it out of metal, and measured 5ft high, 4ft wide and 4ft long (1.5m x 1.2m x 1.2m) and was capable of working out complex multiplications and divisions.  He took his machine to King’s College at London University where many leading scientists were impressed with its efficiency and it was exhibited for some time in the college museum.

Although this calculating machine was a direct forerunner of the pocket calculators and home computers we have today, the only result of this experiment for Thomas Fowler was loss of money and health and final disappointment.  Like many inventions, his calculating machine was used by others to their own advantage but he wasn’t able to make any money out of it.

While his machine was at King’s College, Thomas Fowler died in 1843 and the machine was taken apart and sent back to his son, Hugh, in pieces.  Hugh admitted that he didn’t know how to put it back together again despite having some written instructions dictated by his father on his death bed.

Thomas Fowler is remembered in a stained glass window in the south transept of the parish church installed in his memory by the townspeople and others who recognised his talents.  His name also lived on in the Thomas Fowler IT Centre which, for a few years, was part of the Castle Hill communications centre set up in the late 1990s along with the library, the  tourist information centre and the 1646 Civil War museum.

The 18th century gazebo was in the garden of Palmer House, New Street, which was built by John Palmer, brother-in-law of Sir Joshua Reynolds and it appears in some of the artist’s paintings.  A letter in the Sunday Times of June 1929 from a certain E. E. Rudd states:

‘Sir – There is a gazebo in the grounds of Palmer House in this town with a fine view to the north.  It is of historical interest, for Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr Johnson have sat in it together.’

The gazebo was built possibly at the same time as Palmer House (1752) and was re-erected at Rosemoor in 1999.

In 1897 the Palmers sold Palmer House and, following the subdivision of the Palmer estate during the 20th century, the gazebo ended up marooned at the intersection of four boundary walls.  Inaccessible to the public and with no particular owner, the Grade II listed building gradually deteriorated and, at one time, a local man kept his horse in it!  It became so dilapidated that by the 1990s it featured prominently on the English Heritage Buildings At Risk register and the Devon Historic Buildings Trust set out to save the building.

As it was in an inaccessible location, it was decided to dismantle the gazebo and move it to a site where the general public could enjoy this unique building.  The RHS agreed to receive the gazebo at Rosemoor, their garden a mile and a half out of town, and take over its stewardship.

In a project that took more than three years and cost over £100,000, the Devon Historic Buildings Trust, aided by various grants and bequests, took the gazebo apart and rebuilt it, using the original components.  It took twelve weeks of painstaking work to carefully measure, dismantle, catalogue and transport the remains of the gazebo, piece by piece to Rosemoor where it was  reassembled following the original 18th century construction.  Altogether, the Palmer Gazebo took five months to rebuild and was reopened on 23rd September 1999.

The gazebo is a two-storey structure of rendered stone rubble and a slate-hung first floor.  It has a hipped slate roof and a small ball finial and wrought-iron weather vane at the apex.  It is an octagonal building with a flight of stone steps at the rear to a first floor room which is entered through a panelled door and restored wooden porch.  Inside is a small stone fireplace with slate hearth flanked by china cupboards.  There is panelling below the bay window and a moulded dado rail.

Some local people felt that the amount of money spent on restoring the gazebo was excessive for what is, essentially, a folly and others regret that it has moved out of Torrington into the parish of St Giles-in-the-Wood.  However, it is a fascinating little building with interesting historical associations and it sits easily at Rosemoor commanding attractive views over the gardens towards Torrington, almost in sight of its original home.

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Giant’s Grave’, it is believed that this hump is the final resting place of Royalist prisoners who were killed when parts of the church blew up in February 1646 during the Civil War.

During the Battle of Torrington, after the defeat of the Royalist forces by Sir Thomas Fairfax and his army, the triumphant Parliamentarians used the tower of the parish church, with its thick impregnable walls, as a prison.  The Royalists had already used the tower as an arsenal and had stored 80 barrels of gunpowder there.  This was not sacrilege.  Arms and armour for local defence were often stored in church towers which acted as strongholds.

In 1996 there was a series of events in and around the town arranged by an organisation of local people calling themselves ‘Fire and Steel 350’ to commemorate what happened in Torrington in 1646.  On Saturday 17th February a group of Devon Dowsers gathered around the mysterious cobble-covered hump in the churchyard.  Their aim was to find out once and for all whether this was the burial place of the Royalist prisoners killed in the church explosion.

‘They believe there are 67 bodies buried there,’ said Fire and Steel chairman, Roy Foster.  ‘Who am I to dispute that?’

The Parish Register records the burial of 63 soldiers so this discovery indicated there were four more bodies buried than had been recorded and that they were lying in a pit some seven feet deep.  One of the dowsers later persuaded a friend who is a clairvoyant privately to examine the mound.  Intriguingly, she told him that there were in fact 68 bodies buried there, 63 that were a few hundred years old and five very old ones, probably Neolithic, that had been buried in a barrow.

A wreath is laid on this mass grave each year during the events that commemorate the Battle of Torrington.

In 2016 there are far fewer pubs in Torrington than in previous years.  They are the Black Horse, Globe, Cavalier, Torrington Arms, Royal Exchange, Torridge Inn and Puffing Billy.

The Black Horse in the town square is one of the few remaining ancient houses of half-timbered construction in the towns of North Devon.  At the time of the Battle of Torrington in 1646 during the Civil War, it is believed that both Lord Ralph Hopton, the commander of the Royalists who were trying to defend the town, and Sir Thomas Fairfax, who led the victorious Parliamentarian army, used the Black Horse as their headquarters at different times.

The Globe was a commercial and family hotel and posting house during the 19th century and all coaches, including the ‘North Devon’ from Plymouth to Barnstaple and the ‘Torridge Express’ from Exeter to Bideford, called there.  In the mid 19th century the Globe was considered a much higher class establishment than the Plough Inn next door and it has been a fine building.

The Plough was a public house from about 1750-1910 and this is where the name of the arts centre originated.  When the building was converted into a drill hall, fine oak panelling was removed and installed in the Mayor’s parlour in the Town Hall.  

The Cavalier in Well Street was formerly called the Hunters Inn.  Its name was changed in 1996 when there were celebrations in the town to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Torrington.

The Torrington Arms in New Street was previously known as the Railway Hotel and was run by Phyllis and Maurice Smithson from 1967-1981.  It was the nearest public house to the railway station before the Puffing Billy opened in the old station building after the railway closed.

The Torridge Inn, down opposite the old dairy at the bottom end of Mill Street, is an attractive building of cob and thatch which probably dates from the 17th century. As well as selling ‘fine beers and wines’ it has a Thai Diner which offers authentic Thai cuisine.

Old directories from the 19th century show that there were at least 16 public houses in Torrington at that time.  In 1878 a referendum was held to close public houses on Sundays and the result was 505 in favour, 8 against and 22 neutral.  In 1880 a ‘coffee tavern’ was opened in the square under the auspices of the local temperance movement.

Inns that no longer exist include the Black Swan and the Star in Potacre Street, the Rising Sun and the Setting Sun opposite each other in Cornmarket Street, the Greyhound, Nelson and Canal Tavern (which burnt down in 1859) in Mill Street and numerous pubs in New Street including the Glovers Arms, Ring of Bells, Tradesmens Arms and White Hart (the badge of Richard II in the 14th century).  (For a full list, see ‘Torrington Uncovered’ by Moira Brewer).

The old cinema was a small building in Church Lane which runs from Whites Lane round the back of the old infants’ school into the churchyard.  It had been converted from a building on the site of an old tannery.  After many years of providing entertainment for the people of Torrington, it closed and became used as a bingo hall. Then it stood derelict for a while and was finally knocked down when Tannery Row was built.

Elderly Torrington people who were children in the 1920s and 1930s remember going to see films there.  Every year the Mayor and Mayoress used to treat the schoolchildren to a film just before Christmas and, as they came out, they would each be given an orange and a toffee.  They particularly remembered Mr Harold Vincent, manager of the glove factory who lived up Villa Road and was Mayor in 1926, as being a nice man who ‘gived us sweets’.

In the 1930s a Mr Long and his son, Rex, were in charge of the cinema.  Rex did the film projection.  Mrs Long was at the cash desk.  Prices ranged from 4d to 6d (6d = 2½p)  for children and 6d to 1/- (1 shilling = 5p) for adults.  Cinema audiences, especially during the day when lots of children enjoyed the films, were generally noisy and, ‘if we got too noisy, Mr Long would chuck out the worst offenders.’  The seat at the rear of the cinema, which could accommodate about six people, was leather and made from the old back seat of a ‘charabanc’ and mostly used by courting couples in the evenings.

Local people who were children in the 1950s often used to go to the cinema for entertainment (and some remember being thrown out for mucking about!).  Two films a week would be shown, one on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and a different one on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  At that time it cost ‘half a crown’ or 2/6 (12½p) at the back, 1/6 in the middle, 1/- further forward and 7d (about 3p) at the front.  Dick Long was in charge and used to make his own ice-lollies with a stick in an egg cup and Fred Stapleton was the projectionist.   The films would often break down and Fred would take himself off to the pub!  

The cinema closed in May 1964 (the last film to be shown was Elvis Presley in ‘GI Blues’) and, like so many cinemas across the country, it became a bingo hall. Women in full make-up and wearing their best clothes would be dropped off by their husbands at the end of Church Lane looking forward to their weekly entertainment. When that activity in turn fell out of favour the building remained closed, becoming ever more dilapidated.  Eventually, it was  demolished to make way for the building of Tannery Row which was completed in 2006.

These days films can be seen at the Plough Arts Centre.