Visiting Totnes in Devon

I made a visit to see my mother in Torquay, Devon and took the opportunity to revisit the town where I went to secondary school, Totnes. Here are a few photos I took of this unusual and attractive small town.

There’s a plaque on the wall which states

The Mansion

Built in 1795

Bought in 1887 by the Foundation Governors for King Edward VI Grammar School (founded 1553). This building now forms part of King Edward VI Community Collge and is a centre for community education

Charles Babbage (father of the digital computer) was a pupil at the school for a short time but ill health obliged him to transfer to a private tutor.

I remember having school dinners in a large room at the back of this nearby local pub

The main street, looking upwards

Entrance to historic St Mary’s Church (built in the 15th century)

Not there in my time, but the town now has some interesting coffee shops

An imaginatively titled beer tasting venue

Interesting and surprising connection to the Bodleian Library in Oxford

The very attractive main street, looking downwards

There is also Totnes Castle (closed when we visited) plus St Mary’s Church and the Butterwalk to explore. Just outside Totnes is impressive Dartington Hall and it’s Gardens, now managed by the Dartington Trust:

“The Dartington Experiment began in 1925, when Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst bought a crumbling estate and began to explore how a place could change the world – attracting some of the greatest artists, educators and political philosophers of the 20th century in the process. Important British institutions – including the NHS and the Arts Council – emerged, and ground-breaking experiments in land use, farming and education took place.”