Torbay with G-Line Coaches

In May 2024 we took a coach trip, staying in Torquay and visiting surrounding places. I was just a month after having radiotherapy and probably at the peak of a horrendous throat and cough that made me feel as though I should apologise to everyone.

Sunday 19 May 2024. We arrive at our hotel, the Livermead Hotel just down the hill from central Torquay. This is the view from our window, looking south west towards Paignton on the far coast over the bay.

These days, what with a bad back, walking with a stick, cancer and side effects from half the pharmacy's stock to take every day, I've ditched taking the camera on holiday with me and make do with just a few snaps on the phone. I still take my trusty A4 sketch pad with me and there will be a couple of sketches to come.

Monday's excursion takes us to Powderham Castle, a little way up the River Exe towards Exeter, though Ian, our coach driver, wisely stayed on the roads. As we all walked under the gatehouse to be greeted by the guide and curator of the castle, a tall (well look, I'm 5 ft 4 inches.... everybody's tall...) man came out of the castle and got into a car which immediately signalled its reluctance to start. As a group we gave a sympathetic groan of support as the chap threw a rueful glance at us before going back indoors. "That was the current Earl of Devon..." the guide told us.

The fortified manor house was built c1390, not named as a castle until the 18th century. It certainly has no moat or keep, but a portion of curtain wall today contains the Rose Garden. It was the seat of the Earls of Devon, the Courtenay family, from the mid 1500s when one branch of the family, based at Tiverton, ran out of heirs and the earldom passed to their cousins at Powderham. We had a tour of the ground floor, then were released to go find somewhere to sit with relief.

After some lunch in the Courtyard Cafe, we made an early start back towards the coach park as I didn't want to be holding anyone up. On the way we spotted some picnic tables and I was able to sit and do this sketch of the Victorian gatehouse to the castle. We also saw several deer wandering about.

Our dinner was scheduled quite late for us, but that turned out well as it meant that I could have a couple of hours sleep before going down to the dining room every day. Exhaustion being another of the side effects of the radiotherapy. It did make some of the coach travelling a lot shorter than it may have actually been... Anyway once up and waiting at a table in the hotel garden whilst Miss Franny went to the bar for a bottle of Pinot (and an orange squash for me...) a loud clattering chug-chug announced the passing of three large military helicopters, two of which are seen here.

Tuesday, 21 May 2024. We leave Ian and the coach in Paignton, clutching tickets for the steam train to Dartmouth, the pedestrian ferry from the station at Kingswear to Dartmouth and then a later river cruise from Dartmouth.

Taken from the train, this is the River Dart. Our coach is coach G, right behind the engine, which is Lydham Manor, No. 7827, built at Swindon in 1950 and in use at the Dartmouth Steam Railway since 1973.

I didn't manage to get any photos of the train itself, but here's an old sketch from 2013 which gives the general idea. It added to the fun quite a bit as we passed the grounds of a secondary school where a score or more teenage girls were doing a cross country run and charged as one towards us, waving their hands. By gum, I came over all nostalgic. "Take that stupid grin off your face - they weren't just waving at you!" came Miss Franny's sobering whisper of reality...

We reached the end of the line at Kingswear and got the ferry over to Dartmouth. Failing to find our designated meeting place "The Station Cafe", we wondered agonisingly whether we had been too quick to jump on the ferry, should we have stayed on the station? No, the cafe in question was now "The Embankment Cafe". A fellow passenger, plucked us from the returning ferry queue just in time.

The usual problems with finding a public loo. Cancers and their treatments can sometimes leave you with very little warning that a loo is required. Luckily we found one shortly before I was forced to walk bent double, but then they turned out to be showers... "Toilets around the other side" said a notice so, by now slightly cross-legged, I shuffled as fast as possible around the large building to see "Toilets closed for cleaning - use toilet in the showers"... Crisis narrowly averted.

We met up with the others at the appointed time for a river cruise up the River Dart. I'm told it was very good. I went to sleep more or less as soon as we left the landing stage and only woke up on the returning journey when the sun was going to be in my eyes if I looked out over the side at the passing scenery.

Wednesday 22 May 2024. It was a free day. There was an optional visit to the indoor and outdoor markets at Newton Abbott, but we thought that might not have the sort of appeal that it might have had say in the 1950s and we opted to stay and walk into Torquay itself. The walk was inevitably a stop and start effort from one bench to another with short or long rests depending on the roughness of terrain, or wind, (yes - yet another side effect...) or degree of gradient.

We had been warned of thunder and heavy rain throughout the afternoon and evening, though in the event the rain stayed away until evening and the thunder never made itself heard. We had a cream tea in a cafe, looking out onto a tangled mess of railings and snarled traffic as the area around the harbour was being "modernised" - which usually means that any character will be drained away and a new marina full of boats that seldom move will take over...

Thursday 23 May 2024. Today's outing was to Dawlish in the morning and then to Teignmouth for lunch and the afternoon. Dawlish is where the coastal train tracks were left hanging a few years ago during heavy seas smashing their way through the supporting wall under the lines. It is also famous for its black swans along the riverside which has a very nice park alongside.

Teignmouth had a pleasant, but rather breezy promenade to walk along. The pier looked a little as though it should be visited as soon as possible before it collapsed - there was no one on the length of it at all and we presumed it must be closed, though an arcade at the entrance was open. We sat in a little triangular square (work that one out...!) near a Greggs that supplied us with a warm sausage roll apiece, then made our way along the shopping street back to the Promeade meeting place where an ice cream stall provided us with something to lick whilst we waited for Ian to return.

Friday 24 May 2024. As we prepare to leave the Liversmead Hotel, the owner, his son and staff representatives gather to wave off our coach in a traditional and quite nostalgic way. Ian let the owner's son sit in the driver's seat and hoot the horn. He was made up for the day at that!

Holidays and Day Trips in the UK Index

Sidmouth and Devon Holiday 1993

Memories of a week's family holiday in Devon where we are camping just outside Sidmouth. There were six of us with 3 generations of family and a friend of our daughter. Come with us as we visit Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Morwellham Quay, Torquay, Paignton and Beer.

Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to the relevant article. A link on each page will bring you back here.

Return to Holidays and Days Out in the UK Index

Paignton Trains and Pinballs

Thursday 12 August 1993. We were in Paignton for the day during a week's camping holiday based in Sidmouth, Devon.

There's a famous railway that runs along the coast here - the Paignton and Dartmouth Railway. It had an unusual observation car at the rear of the train on certain days - the carriage can be seen here under the canopy.

We had seen notices in the town saying that the Flying Scotsman locomotive was there on that day and we had gone to see it. I was a bit taken aback. I was used to seeing the loco at Carnforth Steamtown museum in the 1980s in its LNER apple green livery and numbered 4472, but here it was in darker livery, numbered 60103 and with horrendous German-style smoke deflectors fitted to the front. I later found this was its British Rail livery and appearance. Built in 1923 it was the first locomotive to officially reach 100 miles per hour. In 1958 it had its single chimney replaced by a double one which tended to chuck smoke all over the place, obscuring the driver's view, hence the smoke detectors. It ended service running in 1963 and entered preservation status under a succession of owners and batting back and forth between the two liveries. At the time though, on this day, not knowing anything of its long history, I was doubting it was the same locomotive.

Dodging a far more modern and less interesting diesel Sprinter unit on the main line's level crossing, we went back to the seafront and had a walk along towards the pier.

The beach kiosks are a bit more like it today. Pasties and pies on offer, rather than your disgusting whelks and winkles. People were also sporting some bright summer colours as they tucked into some good old heart-warming foodstuffs! Never mind your cockles and mussels alive alive-oh, give us a carton of fish and chips a-fried a-fried-oh! I don't like any confusion over who's eating who...

The pier's amusements arcade didn't look exactly welcoming but closer inspection revealed there were lights on inside and one door slightly ajar.

Inside the arcade we found a Gorgar pinball from 1979 and an F14 Tomcat from 1986, both machines being very old for arcade use. I had a Gorgar in my own pinball collection at the time, it was the first ever talking pinball machine. It managed to make several phrases from its seven-word vocabulary of me; you; got; Gorgar; beat; speaks; hurt.

And we leave Paignton with a view of this intrepid pair at the start of their cross-Atlantic pedallo journey to America. Turn right once out of the harbour and mind that swell!

Return to Sidmouth and Devon Holiday 1993 Index Page

Paignton Harbour

Thursday 12 August 1993. We drove from Sidmouth to Paignton. We had been in 1990 but just about the only thing I could remember about it was drawing the harbour from near the public toilets. Yes folks, it's all glamour on one of our holidays...

Anyway the harbour is a lovely place to start so let's have a look round here before we wander off.

There are plenty of boats tied up here, from commercial small boats offering fishing trips to visitors. The visitors come with visions of huge big game sailfins and probably arrive back from a trip with a few herring. "But you should have seen the one that got away...!"

The ends of the two harbour walls are labelled IN and OUT to ensure that no landlubbers crash into each other going in opposite directions on the same side of the opening out to sea.

Fishing trips are bookable on the harbour side, with each boat having its own small kiosk. There are ferries to Brixham and Torquay, River Dart cruises and one kiosk offering both mackerel and wreck fishing. I imagine that means fishing for fish over the site of a wreck rather than any amateur salvage operation. Hook onto any sunken U-Boat and you'd soon be joining it...

Once we have laughed derisorily at the tiny fish some would-be shark killer has brought back, we leave the delights of the harbour and out to see what else Paignton has to offer. There's this bit of thatch that catches my eye and I amble around it before coming across an old red telephone box and an anchor. Apparently it used to sail off when it got fed up of people shouting "Hello? Can you hear me?"

There is a very attractive and probably ancient green sward along Esplanade Road. Not many towns can boast a space large enough or with architechture of a quality fit for calling an Esplanade. I was born in such a town which had a long wide thoroughfare fronting the town hall which was famous the world over apparently. In fact my grandfather, stationed out in Burma during World War II sent a letter back to the local newspaper in Rochdale saying how everyone, on being told where he was from, answered "Isn't that the town with a grand centre?"

In appreciation of Paignton's foresight and continuing good sense in keeping it, I plonked myself down to enjoy it whilst reading a book. It was The Silence of the Lambs in fact. And in truth I heard not a solitary bleat the whole time I was there...

Return to Sidmouth and Devon Holiday 1993 Index Page