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The History of Torquay, a town in Torbay, on the south coast of the county of Devon, England, starts some 450,000 years ago with early human artefacts found in Kents Cavern. There is little evidence of any permanent occupation at Torquay until the eleventh century records in the Domesday Book, though it is known that visits were made by Roman soldiers and there was a small Saxon settlement called 'Torre'. In 1196 Torre Abbey was founded here, which by the time of its dissolution in 1539, had become the richest Premonstratensian Monastery in England. The buildings were bought by Sir George Cary in 1662. The Cary family and the Briwere family between them owned much of the land now occupied by Torquay. By the 19th century, most of the land was owned by three families: the Carys, the Palks, and the Mallocks. There was little development until the early 19th century, when Lawrence Palk, 2nd Baronet built a new harbour here. Much of the later building in the town was done by his solicitor, William Kitson, who was put in charge of the Palk estates in 1833. At this time the town started to attract visitors in ill health as a winter resort because of its fresh air and mild climate. Its population grew by over ten times in the first 50 years of the century. Later in the century, Torquay became a favoured resort for the upper classes. In 1870, Lawrence Palk, 1st Baron Haldon built another new harbour for the town which made it popular with yacht sailors. It was also extensively used for importing coal and wool from Australia. During the First World War a number of hospitals and convalescent homes were set up in the town. Between the wars, a major advertising campaign by the Great Western Railway ensured that Torquay became a major holiday resort. In World War II, the town, with its preponderance of hotels, provided extensive training facilities for the RAF. From 1944, many American troops were also stationed here. The town was bombed several times. In 1948 Torquay hosted the watersports events of the Olympic Games. In 1950 the European Broadcasting Union was formed here. More recently the town has become popular with foreign language students, and since the expansion of the EU in 2004, many Polish and Czech workers have settled here. ==Before the Norman Conquest== The area comprising modern Torquay has been inhabited since paleolithic times. Hand axes found in Kents Cavern date to 450,000 years ago, and a maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be oldest example of a modern human in Europe. Little is known of its early history until the arrival of the Roman Empire in Britain during the Claudian invasion of 43. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay at some point during this period, leaving offerings at a strange rock formation in Kents Cavern, known as 'The Face'. It is possible these soldiers could have been part of the Legio II Augusta, commanded by the future Emperor Vespasian during the invasion of Britain in 43 considering his extensive actions in the South West, during which according to the Roman historian Suetonius: "He reduced to subjection two powerful nations, more than twenty towns, and the island of Vectis".〔Suetonius, ''De Vita Caesarum (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'')〕 No evidence has been found of Roman settlement in the area but Roman finds have been uncovered in nearby Totnes, Newton Abbot and on Berry Head on the opposite side of Torbay existed an Iron Age fort〔Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1989). The Buildings of England – Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 831. ISBN 0-14-071050-7〕 and a cache of Roman coins was discovered in 1730, including among others a coin of the Emperor Claudius〔Lysons (1822) ''Magna Britannia''; vol. 6: Devonshire, pp. CCCVI-CCCXXIII〕 which dates the find to the same period as Vespasian's activity in the South West. Furthermore, when construction began on the Belgrave Hotel on Torquay seafront in 1840, workmen discovered evidence of a large road between fifteen and twenty feet wide "consisting of large stones placed end to end and requiring gunpowder to break it up and remove it, such was the strength with which it was built."〔Percy Russell, ''A History of Torquay and The Famous Anchorage of Torbay'' (Devonshire Press, Torquay, 1960) p. 21〕 This road was known locally as the 'calcetum' (Latin for causeway) and is mentioned in a number of Medieval and Early Modern sources as a boundary line between various estates in the town, where people would often meet. Given its size, the quality of its construction and the lack of development in this area of Torquay until the nineteenth century, it is possible these were the remains of a Roman road, as local historians J.T White and Percy Russell have suggested, although no further excavations have taken place due to the site being under Torbay Road. The existence of a Roman road leading out of Isca Dumnoniorum and towards Western Devon crossing the River Teign at Teignbridge some 14 miles north of Torquay also suggests this road could have been part of the Roman road network in the South West of Britannia. After the departure of the Roman administration from Britain, around 410 AD, a Brythonic kingdom emerged in the West Country based on the old Roman civitas surrounding Exeter. It was called, in Latin, Dumnonia and, in the native Brythonic language, Dyfneint: pronounced "Dove-naynt" and eventually corrupted to ''Devon'', the region in which the modern town of Torquay is situated would have been a part of this Sub-Roman kingdom. Dumnonia was gradually taken over by the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, but the region of Torquay or Torbay received no mention during this time, and although sporadic Viking incursions occurred throughout Devon over the latter Anglo-Saxon era until the Norman Conquest, there is no evidence that the Vikings visited here. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Torquay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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