Jon
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Post by Jon on Feb 13, 2014 23:45:55 GMT
I don't venture into Chelston much Familiar names in these clippings - we've discussed the Cassavettis before. They lived at Myr Hall; where would that have been? Higher Warberry Road. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Feb 14, 2014 0:26:49 GMT
Glad to learn of financial support from Mr_O of Gosport. I wonder if the intervening 128 years have seen Mr_P, Mr_Q, Mr_R, Mr_S, Mr_T, Mr_U and Mr_V supporting Torquay from Gosport. Alf Opie was one of Torquay's early football stars. He played for the original Torquay Athletic and for Devonport Albion before his naval engineering work took him to Gosport. He came back to Plainmoor at the end of the new Torquay Athetic's first season to play in the first ever football tournament to be played in Devon - picking up a bronze medal as Athletic finished runners-up to Tiverton in an eight-a-side tournament. Opie's Hampshire club Portsmouth Victoria (soon to merge with Southsea to become Portsmouth RFC) won the County Cup in 1889 and subsequently challenged Albion to a Champions of Devon v Champions of Hampshire showdown on Easter Saturday 1889. They stopped off on the way home to play Torquay Athletic at the Rec on Easter Monday infront of a crowd of 1,500 who "gave the visitors a great reception". The touring party only had fourteen players, one of whom went home after the Albion fixture, so two Athletic players made up the numbers. Football tours were common at the time in the North, but not in the South. The Portsmouth Evening News claimed that "the distinction of having been the first southern country club to institute a tour has fallen to the lot of Portsmouth Victoria". Don't believe everything you read in the papers. There is also a massive link betwen the new Athletic's abortive Chelston ground and Gosport. The big house at Chelston Cross was built by pioneering naval architect William Froude. A huge testing tank was constructed by the Admiralty at Chelston Cross for Froude to carry out his design experiments. The experimental works were eventually moved to Gosport. To this day, all new ships launched are blessed with "Torquay water" from the Chelston tank. www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/Second-honour-naval-architect/story-20420623-detail/story.html |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2014 7:21:58 GMT
Ah yes. Froude and his water tank.
My "TUFC-supporting mate from Surrey" (as encountered at Portsmouth) grew up in Froude Avenue in Watcombe. I was never sure if that was named after the tank man - I suspect it was - or his historian brother or another sibling who was a big noise in the Oxford Movement. Either way I wonder if Allan Brown asked the same question when he lived there? Perhaps not.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Feb 19, 2014 0:07:32 GMT
Ah yes. Froude and his water tank. My "TUFC-supporting mate from Surrey" (as encountered at Portsmouth) grew up in Froude Avenue in Watcombe. I was never sure if that was named after the tank man - I suspect it was - or his historian brother or another sibling who was a big noise in the Oxford Movement. Either way I wonder if Allan Brown asked the same question when he lived there? Perhaps not. They name roads after useful people like engineers, not useless historians - particularly in Brunel's manor. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Heaviside Close around there somewhere. Judging from the ever reliable Wiki, James the Historian doesn't sound like a South Devonian to be proud of. I had no idea that Cape Colony had multi-racial suffrage until people like James Froude stuck their oars in. I hope that your "TUFC-supporting mate from Surrey"'s library survived the floods that hit Shepperton. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Oct 28, 2014 20:32:32 GMT
Had to copy this gem from gullone on to this thread. An old postcard presumably taken at Queens Park ?  Henry Yarde Buller Lopes, Conservative candidate, kicking off the second half for Paignton. Sir Francis Layland-Barratt, Liberal candidate, had kicked off the first half for Torquay. More voters in Torquay than in Paignton. Rookie error by Lopes. Note that in 1906, the Torquay candidates thought that rugby rather than soccer was the game to be seen at. Layland-Barratt had covered both bases anyway being a founding vice-president of Torquay United FC. Not surprisingly, Layland-Barratt won in 1906 but was to lose his seat in 1910 to Colonel Burn. By 1910, Plainmoor was the place to be seen and Burn made sure he was seen there. WT 15/10/06  DEG 15/10/06  WT 16/10/06  On the other side of the Penn Inn roundabout, the electoral battle field had already switched to soccer by 1906. In Mid Devon (which included Newton) the Tory candidate Captain Ernest Fitzroy Morrison-Bell and the Liberal Harry Trelawney Eve were strutting around at Newton Town v Plymouth Argyle. I believe that the name of Morrison-Bell is still attached to one of the East Devon soccer cups today. Eve could trump him for local football involvement though having captained Torquay in a football match thirty year earlier. Eve won. DEG 06/10/06  DEG 18/02/76  |
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