Board 1. Teign Heritage Centre
Teignmouth has the dubious distinction of being the site of the last invasion by a foreign country on English soil. In 1690 the town was devastated by a French raid.
Although it is said that no lives were lost, the damage to the town was estimated to have been £11,030.6s.10d. A Royal Brief was read in all churches throughout the country appealing for financial relief. French Street, where you are now standing, was one of the streets rebuilt with help from this collection.
Brunel’s South Devon Railway Company, bringing passengers from London, arrived in Teignmouth in 1846. The first railway station was a “temporary” wooden structure which remained in use for 47 years. The replacement, in the French Pavilion style, was built in 1893. It is now one of the best surviving examples of this type in the country. For next board:
Turn right and head towards the church.
Your next boards
Board 2. St Michael’s Churchyard
You are standing by the parish church of East Teignmouth which has occupied this site for a thousand years, though the present building dates from the 1820s
Board 3. St Michael's East Side on Promenade
The little hamlet of East Teignmouth developed around the old Saxon church of St Michael with fishermen’s cottages and salterns or salt huts for the processing of salt.
