Before the arrival of the railway in 1859, Paignton was still a small coastal parish whose character had changed little for centuries. Its origins lay in the late Saxon period, when the manor belonged to Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter. The bishops retained control throughout the Middle Ages, establishing their residence beside the parish church and creating what became known as the Bishop’s Palace. Although much of the complex later fell into ruin, fragments survived into the nineteenth century: stretches of walling, the gatehouse range, and the distinctive tower long associated with Bishop Miles Coverdale. The tower’s connection with Coverdale, who published the first complete printed English Bible in 1536 and briefly served as Bishop of Exeter, became part of local tradition, though modern historians doubt he ever lived there.
The medieval town grew up around the church and palace. Winner Street, one of Paignton’s oldest thoroughfares, takes its name from “Wynerde,” a reference either to vineyards or to wine merchants who traded in the area. In 1294 the bishops secured a charter from Edward I granting the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair, raising Paignton to the status of a market town. For two centuries the market flourished, serving the surrounding agricultural district, but it declined after the English Reformation when the bishops’ influence waned and the manor passed into secular hands.
For much of the post‑medieval period Paignton remained a modest settlement, its economy based on farming, orchards and inshore fishing. The parish was noted for grapes, cabbages and cider, and the landscape was characterised by small fields, orchards and scattered farmsteads. The coastline was practical rather than picturesque: fishermen hauled their boats up onto the sands, and seaweed was gathered for manure. The town’s built core centred on Church Street and Winner Street, with the Bishop’s Palace ruins forming a quiet backdrop to parish life. Kirkham House, a late medieval stone dwelling, survives from this period and offers a rare glimpse of domestic architecture before the Victorian expansion.
The early nineteenth century brought the first signs of change. Torquay, only a few miles away, was developing rapidly as a fashionable resort, and Paignton began to feel the influence of visitors drawn by the mild climate and sheltered bay. In 1837 the Paington Harbour Act authorised the construction of a new harbour, replacing the informal beach landing with a more substantial facility. This development encouraged fishing, small‑scale trade and coastal traffic, and it coincided with the gradual adoption of the modern spelling “Paignton.” The town remained small, but its orientation was beginning to shift from agriculture to the seaside economy that would later define it.
The landscape captured in early nineteenth‑century views — such as those by J. W. Tucker — shows Paignton on the cusp of transformation. The parish church tower dominated the clustered houses; the Bishop’s Palace ruins and Coverdale Tower stood to the west; and on the southern headland a solitary lookout tower kept watch over Torbay. That tower, built for maritime observation during the Napoleonic period, stood alone on the cliff until Colonel Robert Smith incorporated it into the fabric of Redcliffe Towers in the 1850s. The surrounding fields ran unbroken to the sea, and the settlement still had the appearance of a rural village with a maritime fringe.
By mid‑century the historic heart of Paignton lay in the triangle formed by Church Street, Winner Street and what would become Palace Avenue. These streets still contained the older houses and small shops of the pre‑resort town, but new villas and terraces were beginning to appear as the settlement expanded southwards and eastwards. The ruins of the Bishop’s Palace, the parish church and the Coverdale Tower continued to dominate the old centre, anchoring the rapidly changing town in its medieval past.
The decisive moment came in 1859. On 2 August that year the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway opened its line to Paignton, linking the town directly with London. The arrival of the railway transformed Paignton from a rural parish with a small harbour into a destination accessible to visitors, investors and developers. It marked the end of the old agricultural and episcopal town and the beginning of the modern resort.
