A Grant Awarded
The South West Heritage Trust is delighted to have been awarded a grant by the National Archives’ Archives Revealed cataloguing grants programme to enable us to catalogue the family and estate papers of the Cary family of Torquay.
The Carys
The Carys, who lived at Cockington Court and later Torre Abbey for almost 300 years from 1662, were significant landowners in Devon, served as MPs, intermarried with leading West Country families and were active at the royal court.
Collections at Devon Heritage Centre
The Devon Record Office acquired the majority of the surviving papers of the Cary family – comprising manorial records, deeds, rentals and legal papers – in the 1980s, but the opportunity to comprehensively catalogue them has never arisen until now. In addition to the original deposit of records, the Devon Heritage Centre has also recently acquired a further collection relating to the management of the family’s estates, which had been in storage in Paignton for many years. This includes a remarkable set of architectural records – including coloured drawings, elevations and floor plans – of Torquay and its environs, maps and plans depicting the development of Torbay, and deeds, testamentary documents, more legal papers and some personal papers, which together comprise the major archive for the development of Torquay as a tourist resort.
After several reconnaissance visits and detailed planning because of access issues at the storage location, the additional records were collected and brought to the Devon Heritage Centre in May.
Our Partnership with Torbay Archive Service
Over recent years we have developed closer links with Torbay via the Torbay Archive Service, through which an archivist pays quarterly visits to Torre Abbey to bring documents to researchers and provide advice. We also researched and designed the award-winning Torbay Discovery Trail in association with two primary schools in Torquay, and a range of further community engagement work is planned as part of this project. The acquisition of the new records and the resources to catalogue them will enable us to further enhance our relationship with this part of Devon.
