Great Torrington Heritage Museum and Archive

Great Torrington Heritage Museum and Archive now has a new home, 14, South Street and also the Grade 2* listed property, The Market House, which is just above the Pannier Market.

The Museum has a very extensive artefacts collection, which is all laid out on visual storage. We have items from gloving, agriculture, printing, blacksmiths and WW2. Also on view are a number of items from our costume collection. This was all made possible due to a 'Start- up' grant from Leader 4, for which we are most grateful.
Come and learn the history of Torrington. We very much look forward to seeing everyone.

Anyone requiring to contact us concerning family history or archive material can contact us.

Industry, agriculture, dairying,glove making, railways, roads, rolle canal, people, costume, bygones, the town, the country and the customs are all featured in our collection.

Of special interest amongst the wide variety of artefacts is a display about the life and works of William Keble-Martin, author and illustrator of the Definitive Book of Wild Flowers and vicar of this parish for nine years.

Thomas Fowler of Torrington was the first man in history to realise that hot water rose and in 1838, he invented our present day central heating system. He also produced the first working calculator