The Abbey HallTorquay Boys’ Grammar School

The Abbey Hall was first opened on 28th April 1853 as a British School set up by the non-conformists for boys and infants. It stood on the site of a rope walk which had been set among the earliest industrial buildings on Waldon Hill, on land belonging to Abbey Road Independent Chapel, later Abbey Road Congregational Church. The school's first prospectus read: "No infant will be excluded because its parents are any particular denomination, though no Churchman or Dissenter need fear his child will imbibe sectarian principles". The fees were threepence, less than 2p, a week, but were reduced in cases of poverty.

In 1871 the British Schools were reorganised, and The Abbey Hall became boys' only, with schools for girls opening at Upton Vale Baptist Church and at Torre Hill, where the Central Church stands today. The schools received grants but no aid from the rates, so struggled to survive until in 1894 the schools in Abbey Road and Upton Vale had to close.

The building was then occupied by the Central Technical School, set up by the Elementary Schools Union to provide technical and manual instruction under the provisions of the 1889 Technical Instruction Act. It was the first such school in Torquay, and was funded out of a rate that could not exceed a levy of one penny.

Meanwhile, in the 1860s the idea of a public school or college in Torquay was first mooted, but it was decided that the one at Newton Abbot, now long since gone, would suffice. There was no attempt to provide higher education until the Elementary Schools Union set up evening schools to train "pupil teachers" in three centres in Torquay schools. The Education Act passed in 1902 required the setting up of day centres to train pupil teachers, and so in 1904 it was decided to adapt The Abbey Hall as such a centre.

How the Centre first operated can be found from an entry in the Upton School log book dated 4th September 1904: "Today a Day Centre for Pupil Teachers was opened in Torquay. Donald England (Scholarship) will attend on Mondays, Wednesday mornings and Fridays. Roy Phillips on Tuesdays, Wednesday afternoons and Thursdays. The absence of Pupil Teachers necessitates some changes in the Time Table".

The Torquay Pupil Teachers Centre, which took students from Torquay, Brixham, Kingswear and Dartmouth, occupied a rather grim stone building at the bottom of Abbey Road, now the Disabled Centre, and consisted of one large hall which served for full assemblies and for classrooms for two or three junior forms, and an adjoining portion containing a labyrinth of classrooms used for senior forms. The meagre furniture and equipment was antique and well-worn. So reads the history of Torquay Boys' Grammar School, because it was from that modest beginning that both the present Boys' and Girls' Grammar Schools grew.

The make-up of pupils attending the Centre changed between 1909 and 1913: the pupil teachers declined greatly in numbers, down from 100 to about 30, while those with scholarships or paying fees requiring a general education increased even more than would have been expected, the fee-payers alone rising from four to 81. On 1st August 1913 the Board of Education recognised The Abbey Hall formally as a "secondary school". Finally, on 21st April 1915 a new school, Torquay Secondary School, opened at Barton Road, and The Abbey Hall was vacated.

The Hall continued to be used for education after the departure of the Pupil Teacher Centre. The Education Act of 1902 had also required that evening classes be arranged in commercial subjects, and later "continuation classes" for those who had left school at twelve years of age. These types of classes continued to develop in many scattered locations, including The Abbey Hall. This development finally resulted in the opening of a purpose-built college in 1931, called the South Devon Technical College.

In 1931 the headquarters of the local YMCA moved into The Abbey Hall, but just one day before war was declared, on 2nd September 1939, it was commandeered and taken over by the RAMC Territorials as their base. Later the Ministry of Supply requisitioned it, and the building was used by Messrs. M and H Lederman, who made uniforms for the forces there. It then lay empty for a time before becoming a Jewish Synagogue, which occupied the upstairs, as reported in the Torquay Times in March 1958. The ground floor was being used by the Sea Cadets and the Sea Rangers.

During his Mayoral Year in 1957 to 1958, Alderman Leslie Goodrich resolved to raise funds to purchase and convert the building into a Centre for the Disabled and Handicapped. It was purchased in 1958, but it took some time to be adapted, and on 9th December 1961 The Abbey Hall was opened officially by the BBC personality Eric Robinson, and a plaque unveiled. It is now a Grade II listed building, and is still used for the purpose set up by Mr Goodrich. The upper floors are occupied by a flourishing Deaf Social Club, which has a bar and indoor sports facilities including a skittle alley, snooker room, pool table and darts. At the top of the building is a chapel which is the home of the Devon Deaf Church and the venue for services conducted in sign language. The ground floor is used by the local Disabled Fellowship and a Blind Group.

Torquay Boys' Grammar School traces its origins to the Pupil Teachers Centre opened on 4th September 1904 in The Abbey Hall, Rock Road, Torquay. Dr F H Haywood was appointed as the first headmaster, but after just one year he left, and Mr William Jackson from Middlesbrough took over in July 1905. As early as January 1905 it was clear that there was a need for a new school to be built to provide general education in Torquay, and there were problems over its possible location. The Borough had selected a site behind Upton School, facing Lymington Road, known locally as "The Pit", now where the present Castle Circus car park is sited, but for various reasons this was not deemed suitable, and matters stalled for a few years.

However, in 1911 "The Elms" in Barton Road, built in 1876, which had been the home of Torquay's first Mayor, Alderman W F Splatt, was bought by the County Council. There may never have been a secondary school in Torquay: when the proposed purchase went before the County Education Committee it was approved by just one vote, some members preferring a site at Churston, as more convenient for those travelling from Brixham. And again, when the revised plans for a coeducational school at Barton Road were submitted to the Education Committee, it was resolved again by just one vote that there should be separate Boys' and Girls' Departments, and that a headmistress be appointed to the latter.

The Governors approved the final plans in January 1913, and the quotation of Wakeham Brothers of Plymouth to build the school for £11,674 seems, in today's conditions, most reasonable. In April 1915 the new school, Torquay Secondary School, opened with places for 170 boys and 170 girls. Attempts to use the new building as a Red Cross Hospital for wounded soldiers failed, but the "new" Town Hall at the top of Castle Circus was less fortunate.

In October 1918 a Junior Secondary School, or Preparatory Grammar School, was opened at "Gainsborough" near Torre Station, and this later moved to "St Mary's" in Oak Hill Road in 1930. In 1928 the name of the school was changed to Torquay Grammar School, and the Torquay Borough Arms replaced the old monogram previously adopted.

Mr Jackson continued as headmaster until his retirement in 1936, a continuous period of 31 years, when Mr John W Harmer was appointed as his successor. By then the school had grown, and in 1939 the Girls' School was relocated to its present site in Shiphay. After the passing of the Butler Education Act in 1944, the Junior Secondary School was forced to close.

As early as 1949 plans to re-site the Boys' School were initiated, but it was not until 1983 that Torquay Boys' Grammar School moved to its present site in Shiphay Manor Drive, Torquay, under its headmaster Mr Barry Hobbs. The present headmaster Mr Roy Pike was appointed in 1986.

A Torbay Civic Society commemorative blue plaque was unveiled by the Mayor of Torbay, Nick Bye, on 4th March 2004, to celebrate the founding of the Torquay Pupil Teachers Centre in 1904.

Written by Mr David Simmons in consultation with Mr John Pike, for the Torbay Civic Society, February 2004