Brixham Paignton Torquay

Brief history of Paignton

Paignton can be found in official records dating back to the Domesday Book of 1086 AD. The town's name has also been spelled as Peynton and Paington and is derived from Paega's town, the name of the original Celtic settlement. Paignton was a small fishing village until the 19th century, when the Paington (sic) Harbour Act led to the construction of a new harbour in 1837. It was also around this time that the modern spelling of Paignton appeared. The historic part of Paignton is centred around Church Street, Winner Street and Palace Avenue and contains fine examples of Victorian architecture. Kirkham House is a late medieval stone house in the town which is open to the public at certain times of year. The Coverdale Tower is adjacent to Paignton Parish Church and is named after Bishop Miles Coverdale, who published an English translation of the Bible in 1536 and was the last Bishop to occupy the tower as a residence.
The railway line to Paignton was built by the Torbay and Dartmouth Railway, and was opened to passengers on 2 August 1859. This gave Torquay and Paignton a reliable link to London for the first time, and the area became a popular destination for wealthy Londoners. The people of Paignton acquired the nickname of pudden eaters when thousands turned up hoping to obtain a piece of a huge pudding that had been baked to celebrate the arrival of the railway. A new Paignton Pudding was baked in 1968 to celebrate the town's charter, and another was baked in 2006 to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Oldway Mansion is a large house and gardens in Paignton that was built in in the 1870s for Isaac Merritt Singer, who had amassed a considerable fortune as a result of his improvements to the sewing machine. The building now acts as the local council offices and the meeting place of Torbay Council. Other Singer legacies in Paignton include the Palace Hotel and the Inn On The Green, which were built as homes for Singer's sons Washington and Mortimer respectively.