The Charity Organisation Society (the COS), the Council of Social Services (the CSS), Torbay Council for Voluntary Service (Torbay CVS), Torbay Voluntary Service (TVS), & Community & Voluntary Action Torbay (CVA Torbay)
A Short History
Victorian Torquay
In January 1886 a meeting was held at the Bath Saloons in Torquay presided over by the Mayor, Alderman EP Bovey. This meeting set up the Torquay Charity Organisation Society, which covered Torquay, St Marychurch and Cockington. The aim of the COS was to provide for the “really deserving poor” and those present decided that it would “create cooperation between public charities as well as private almsgivers and render assistance without demoralisation”.
The Mayor told the meeting that he had “seen and known life amongst the poor, but he had also known amongst them a nobility of character, a delicacy of feeling, a patience of suffering and a self-denying generosity which ought to make it not only a duty but a privilege to attempt to help them”.
Torquay’s Pimlico in 1901
From their premises at 10 Abbey Road, the Society took on a range of tasks. From money given by benefactors and from subscriptions, they helped the old and the “thoroughly respectable poor” avoid the workhouse - in the first year 73 poor people were assisted and 30 refused. They sent children to orphanages, and gave money, food, dentures, surgical appliances and hospital tickets to the needy. Unemployed people were helped to emigrate to Canada. It assumed control of the Market House Soup and Bread Kitchen and the United Torquay Coal Charity. Meanwhile, the Needlework Branch provided garments.
The encouragement of thrift was a core value and of “vital importance to maintain the independence, support and comfort of the working class”. The Torquay Thrift Club helped to pay insurance, buy coal, and provided against illness.
‘Invalids in Torquay’ 1886
By 1904, the Society was insisting it had been successful in its task of “elevating the deserving poor by suppressing the haphazard harmful charity existing in Torquay... Torquay people had, thanks to the Society, grown wiser since the day when, by tramping around the hills and pulling the bell at the doors of villas, a man or woman could receive any amount of half-crowns”.
However, despite the Society efforts, indiscriminate charity clearly continued. In 1911, they reported that tramps and beggars “still present one of the most difficult problems in Torquay”. In response, they produced a leaflet to discourage “rich people on the hills” from giving to beggars without enquiry.
By 1911 the Society was coordinating 25 agencies.
Charities in the Bay have always responded to immediate need. In 1931 during the Depression, the Society opened a soup kitchen in Pimlico and then another at Rock Road. It soon found that demand was so great that it set up a travelling soup kitchen calling each day at St Pauls Plainmoor, St James Upton and the Hele end of Salisbury Avenue. During Christmas 1934, 77 families were given grocery tickets, 23 coal, with a further 20 given toys.
By 1937 the Society was working with 31 affiliated charities and groups, and in 1940 it helped set up the Citizens Advice Bureau.
The War brought further challenges, including the placing of evacuees from London and the organisation of mail to occupied Europe, Africa and Asia. By the coming of peace in 1945 the Red Cross Postal Message Service had dealt with nearly 30,000 messages.
Now in new premises at 23 Abbey Road, the Society adapted to the new world of the Welfare State and the National Health Service. From now on, they would work “to harness voluntary service to the state coach”.
A priority had always been support for the elderly and two ‘old peoples homes’ were established: Grosvenor Court – the fist home for old people to be opened in the West Country - and Seaway. Under the Society’s guidance, a committee of the Torbay Association of the Elderly was organised. This later became Age Concern.
Paignton Day Centre was set up in 1975 in Palace Avenue, Paignton. The Centre moved to Torquay Road in 1979.
The town’s rising population and the continuing need for the coordination of services led the COS to become the Council of Social Services for Torquay in 1971. This would become Torbay Voluntary Service which described its objectives to be “Coordinating Informing Supporting & Initiating”.
From its cramped offices at 21 Abbey Road, TVS moved to new premises at Castleton Hotel, Castle Road in 1988. This gave the organisation the opportunity to host new and growing projects, and by 1991 TVS was the home for 7 voluntary groups.
The number of organisations set up by TVS and its predecessors is too long to list. However, to name a few:
In 1964 the Society helped set up the Samaritans
1978 saw the beginnings of the Victim Support Scheme
1989 the Ring and Ride Bus Service
1990 the Carers Action Group
1994 Citizens Advocacy, which became VOCAL
Torbay Voluntary Services has now become Community & Voluntary Action Torbay, the umbrella, support and development organisation looking after more than 400 local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) groups in the Bay, from larger charities like Rowcroft hospice, to small self-funding groups, to local branches of national charities.
CVA Torbay provides information, advice and support to VCS groups including funding advice and assistance with volunteer recruitment. They also keep all local VCS groups registered with them informed about new legislation, training, funding, good practice and any relevant national and local news.
For more information about registering with CVA Torbay please email marie@cvatorbay.org.uk
CVA Torbay would like to thank Kevin Dixon for donating his time to précis this ‘History’ from information supplied to him from our Centenary publication.
