The Paignton Picture and Story Thread

Finally found a bit of time to add to this thread, I do want to add further to it and cover some other parts of Paignton like the harbour area for example, when I get the time to do so.

I did find it hard getting a sense that I was in the very oldest part of Paignton when I walked around the Winner Street and Church Street area. Its not surprising really seeing that both those streets were rebuilt in the Victoria era. But it is a fact that those two streets were once the main heart of Paignton and such roads as the Totnes road were built to bypass what was the main shopping area of the town.

Its been clear to see just how the building of the railway line change the whole face of Paignton and how in the end, both Winner Street and Church Street have ended up becoming almost forgotten back streets of the town. Add to that just how much land was reclaimed from the sea and you can see how the town ended up being shifted away from the area where the town was first born.

So a few pictures of the old part of Paignton starting with both Winner and Church street.





















This wonderful old thatched cottage at one end of Kirkham Street was sadly set on fire a good number of years ago by mindless idiots. It stood ruined for a good number of years as I believe there were problems over the insurance. Thankfully in the end it was fully repaired and the only thing that was done differently to the cottage was tiles being used on the porch rather than thatch as that is what had been set on fire before.






At the other end of Kirkham Steet can be found, Kikrham house, the house is a well-preserved late medieval house, built of local stone. Today Kirkham House 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 it was once known as the Priest’s House, it is more likely to have been the house of a well-to-do landowning or merchant family: the detailing inside the house suggests that it belonged to someone of high status.

There are no documents to tell 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.

Kirkham House is one of the oldest town houses in Devon and dates from the late 14th cent. It would have gone the same way as most other examples of this period if it hadn't been for the foresight and generosity of a local woman named Ada Jennings.

By around 1840 the house had been converted into three dwellings and stayed like that until the whole lot was condemned in the 1930s. Mrs Jennings realised the importance of the derelict cottages and managed to buy them for £600, which was a lot of money then. She then set about getting this 'medieval hall house with cross passage' restored but never lived long enough to see it completed, but she left the property and £9,000 'to the nation' for its restoration which was completed in 1960.










In between Church Street and Place Avenue that was once a cabbage field can be found the Coverdale Tower. It is all that remains of The Bishops Palace that originates from the 14th century and was the residence of the Bishops of Exeter until the 16th century.'. The name 'Coverdale Tower' recalls an erroneous tradition that Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter 1551-3, translated the Bible in it, but his translation was published 16 years before he became Bishop