Torquay Museum

TORQUAY may be famous for its Riviera-type climate, its lush palm trees and the author Agatha Christie, but few people realise that Torquay’s history is steeped in exploration.

For over 160 years, the objects collected by explorers, travellers, scholars and enthusiasts connected with Torquay have found their way into the galleries and storerooms of Torquay Museum. Most returned from their journeys with gifts, souvenirs, chance finds, purchases, ancient grave remains and possibly even loot. Some never returned home, going missing on their travels, never to be seen again.

Following a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid and a major refurbishment, Torquay Museum is about to open an exciting new interactive gallery that will pay tribute to these amazing local explorers and for the first time display many of these remarkable items in one gallery, which is to be known as the Explorers Gallery. This permanent exhibition is a treasure house of knowledge and objects from around the world.

Take for instance the story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. Fawcett was a real and intrepid explorer who faced great dangers. He charted unmapped regions of the river Amazon and dreamed of finding ancient Brazilian cities and untold wealth. He disappeared in 1925, amid rumours that he was eaten by cannibals. His true story is stranger than fiction and it is possible that he was the inspiration behind the hugely popular Indiana Jones films by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Few people realise that the explorer Sir Richard Burton was born in Torquay on the 19th March 1821. He grew up to relish danger, the strange and exotic and was fascinated by local customs and traditions. Determined to discover the true source of the Nile, Sir Richard was thwarted by malaria but later went on to enter previously forbidden Muslim cities including the sacred city of Mecca, despite being set upon by bandits. Sir Richard had such disrespect for authority and for social niceties that he was nicknamed Ruffian Dick.

In the 1840s the interests of the British Empire collided with those of Imperial China in what became known as the First Opium War. The British used their superior navy to force the Chinese to accept their trading terms including the right to sell opium to China, against the Emperor’s wishes.

Dr Charles Paget-Blake, who lived and worked in Torquay following his retirement as a ship’s surgeon with the Royal Navy, found himself in the centre of the action in China. Caught up in the Victorian craze for collecting, the ancient culture of China fascinated Paget-Blake and many of the items he brought back to Torquay were from the British looting during the Opium Wars. Paget-Blake became famous locally for placing a captured Russian cannon from Crimean War on Torquay seafront, which proved to be a very unpopular move and caused an outcry from the locals.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, who lived in the South West, recruited many of his crew from the region including Frank Browning who lived in Torquay for most of his life. He joined the Royal Navy at 17 and at 28 he was picked to join Scott on his world famous expedition to Antarctica in the Terra Nova. Scott’s aim was to be the first man to reach the South Pole.

Browning was the cook for the six-man expedition that landed on South Victoria Land to carry out scientific work but disaster struck when the Terra Nova could not return through the extreme ice to pick them up. They carved out an ice cave and survived the winter on porridge with seal or penguin steaks.

Eventually the party decided to walk 300 miles back to base at Cape Evans. They all suffered with frostbite and Browning was so ill he had to be pulled on a sledge. However, he insisted on walking the last leg of the journey so that the whole party returned on foot.

Browning later received the Antarctic Medal from King George V and in Antarctica, Mount Browning and Browning Pass were named after him.

These are just some of the amazing stories surrounding these explorers with many more to be seen at the museum, including the fascinating collection of objects and artefact from Egypt and the reconstruction of the little boy entombed within the Egyptian coffin. The museum has carried out an extensive conservation programme on the collections in the new gallery and many of the objects will be on show to the public for the first time.

The new gallery also has plenty of activities to make sure that children have plenty to keep them interested and engaged during their visit. There is a crawl tunnel and an explorers game as well as the Harrison trail, in which children must discover the combination to open a treasure chest and claim a reward. This interactive element ensures that the whole family can enjoy the explorers experience.

Today, for much of the time, we live in a virtual world. We enjoy music and concerts on headphones, watch films, read travel books, follow documentaries and celebrity castaway TV shows and explore via computer games. Visiting this new gallery allows visitors to be transported back to a time when the only way to make new discoveries was to embark on a journey of exploration and experience the world first hand.

The Explorers Gallery will open to the public on July 28 and will be a permanent gallery at the museum.

Torquay Museum is open from Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm (last entry at 4pm).

From mid-July to September there is Sunday opening from 1.30 to 5pm.

Admission charges apply.