When the Torquay Natural History Society was founded in 1844 its members almost immediately realised the need for a Museum in which to display their collections.

By the early 1870s a building appeal fund had been started and in 1874 Reverend Stebbing (President of the Society) laid the foundation stone. In the stone below it, a cavity was formed to hold a bottle containing a brief record of the Society, a current issue of Nature magazine (with a portrait of Darwin) and two or three copies of the daily newspaper. The land on which the new building was to be situated had been leased for 1000 years from the Cary family and rent was 1/- per year (which is still paid today).

The building was designed by the architect William Harvey Jnr. in the Venetian – Gothic style. Two of the upper windows have terra-cotta tympana depicting the Arts and Nature, both designed by John Philip (the architect famous for creating the Albert Memorial in London). One of the Museum’s finest features is its glass ‘lantern roof’, which illuminates the Upper Gallery.

Over many years the Museum’s collection has grown and grown thanks to the donations of Society members and the public. The collection includes natural history, archaeology, ancient Egypt, world cultures, palaeontology, social history, ceramics, local records, oral history and archive.

View my website http://www.torquaymuseum.org/