Where Torquay players lived (a tentative history)

Some time ago they merged with Kingskerswell FC.

I always found it difficult to believe why a Torquay club should merge with an out of town club?

On a more serious note, back in the fifties and late forties, Chelston were amongst a number of the more "ambitious" South Devon clubs who opted for the superior (at the time) Devon & Exeter League (as it was then) in preference to the South Devon League to avoid having to play on those awful council pitches (except their own of course!) Torquay Villa (Cricketfield Road) were another as well as Newton Spurs, Kingsteignton Athletic, ,Newton Rangers (in the sixties at Bakers Park NA) and much later still, Buckland Athletic.

It's a sad reflection on the reputation of Torbay as a sporting centre.

Going back to the original post, you want to ask what it was like for the new arrivals recruited to form our very first Football League side in 1927. Many of these players would have been hastily-recruited from clubs throughout the country. Some only played for Torquay United for a relatively short period; others would have stayed longer and made their lives in South Devon. Did they arrive on their own during the summer of 1927 to be put up in "digs" - or did they almost immediately bring families? You can almost sense that joining Torquay United was such a risky proposition that it resembled "working away from home" until things became more established (finishing bottom of the league must have added to the sense of precariousness). I guess we'll never know the answers but we can imagine the players living pretty close to Plainmoor and cycling or walking to training and matches. Or a tram ride up Forest Road?

Albert Hutchinson, who we discussed last week, would be an interesting case in point: signed from Luton Town in 1930; Sheffield-born; age unknown; married or unmarried? You wonder where he might have lived and what would it have been like being pitched into life in Torquay in the 1930s.

Torquay United players' wives - a potted history?

I doubt whether many TUFC players were in a position to buy a house in the mid 60s.

Footballers were still very much "working men" at the time - and I don't think "working men" were able to aspire to buy houses at that time.

I had a chat with Mr O'Farrell (Homelands will tell me off if I call him Frank ) at the Eastern Eye Curry Night and he said it was easy getting players to come to Torquay when he was first here - all you had to do was find them a decent house to rent (club-owned or not). When he returned in the 80s, it was far more difficult as players were looking to buy and found house prices prohibitive.

I know Dave.

Actually, I had better advise Merse not to click that link. He won't like Russell's avatar. ;D

We lived at 1, right on the corner. Looking at Google Streetview, we didn't have the large hedge/trees on the "upper garden" that it does now, and it was painted yellow.

The woman who lived at 5 then had a Labrador, as we also did.

So is that your car in the drive with the reg plate clearly visible: WK02 etc?

....thats the wife's runaround/stock car
Yeah the guy at no 1 obviously doesnt like the sun coming through the windows!

I Guess, like me you used to take your labrador up to armada park, a great safe, enclosed doggie park.......ideal for dogs like labs and beagles who love to run and play.