IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
McKay Avenue, TORQUAY, TQ1 4FD

The Torquay Boys' Grammar School Building was incorporated into the campus of South Devon College when the new grammar school was built at Shiphay in 1983. The College named the building after Frances Pugh. This building was demolished in the late 1990's when a new building, an Open Learning Centre was constructed to use space more efficiently. That new building has now itself been demolished as the whole campus has been sold for a housing development and the College has moved to Paignton. It is believed that income from the development will continue to support the College financially. The old Grammar School building was constructed in 1913. The bell tower may be seen in another posting.Image]

Demolition of parts of the old Torquay Boys' Grammar School can be seen in progress in this picture. The building was renamed the Pugh building after it became part of the College. This can be seen in the centre of the picture. On the right is the College's McKay building, named after a former College Principal. After this building was demolished a new Building was put up behind the McKay building. Not long afterwards, the whole site was sold to a developer for housing purposes and all buildings, new and older, were razed to the ground in 2006.

The steelwork and foundations of the building which was to become the South Devon College's Open Learning Centre rise from the area where there used to be a relatively "temporary" building part of the former Torquay Boys' Grammar School. When the College used that building, it was named the "Bauhaus block" and used by Art students. The former Grammar school building, which can be seen intact beyond the steelwork, was soon to be demolished. So, too was the newly built Open Learning Centre - a huge waste of public money.

A completed part of the new development on the site of South Devon College, after some of whose former principals the roads are being named. However, building work on the central area of the development has made little progress in the last year - see Image

A fine specimen of a magnolia tree at the former South Devon College, part of an earlier Arboretum. Also see Image] Image]

Recently completed housing development in Torre.

I think these new properties are on Richardson Walk, named after a long-standing chair of governors of South Devon College, on the site of which the development has been built.

The nearly demolished Torquay Boys' Grammar school still has a few walls standing. At this first floor level, there is what looks like an old fireplace which was adjacent to the old library in the grammar school building. This alcove was later used to house a photocopier when South Devon College took over the building. In the background, the College library building may be seen. This, too, has now disappeared to make way for a housing development.

The grounded bell tower from the Pugh Building (former Torquay Boys' Grammar School) was brought down intact by the demolition company. It is not known if this was sold intact. Perhaps it was copper. The bell itself, which had summoned generations of Torquay boys to their lessons, allegedly disappeared.

This tree bloomed in Spring each year, opening a window onto the glory of the old Arboretum which used to exist before the College. The tree was saved from destruction by a well known local artist, John Miles (1944-1997), an art teacher at the College, who stood in front of a bulldozer. Later it was given a preservation order which saved it from the building plans of Dr Terry Keen, the College principal. There is an old stable in the background. Also see Image] Image]