An Edwardian family beside a bathing hut. Teign Heritage Archive

A fashionable seaside resort

Teignmouth developed from the mid-eighteenth century to become one of the earliest resorts along the Devon coast.

Visiting gentry came to improve their health by “taking the waters”. This involved drinking sea water as well as bathing in it.

The fashionable enthusiasm for rustic simplicity was well accommodated by the town’s natural picturesque setting and its quaint, clean cottages, rebuilt after the French Raid.

When wealthy travellers could not travel abroad because of the Napoleonic wars, Teignmouth became styled “the Montpellier of England”.

With the coming of the railway in 1846, middle and working class people were able to come and enjoy a seaside holiday in Teignmouth or Shaldon.

Teignmouth Sea Front 1916