History of St Andrew’s church in Torquay

HISTORY of St Andrew’s church in Torquay

Tor Mohun (formerly Tor Brewer) is a historic manor and parish on the south coast of Devon, now superseded by the Victorian sea-side resort of Torquay and known as Tormohun, an area within that town. In 1876 the Local Board of Health obtained the sanction of Government to alter the name of the district from Tormoham to Torquay.

Tormoham was a relatively small village with a parish economy largely a mixture of pastoral farming and fishing, mackerel being a local speciality.

The ancient Church of St Saviour, the parish church of Tor Mohun. It contains several monuments, most notably to Thomas Ridgeway (1543–1598) of Torwood House, lord of the manor of Tor Mohun, and of the Cary families of nearby Torre Abbey, and Cockington Court, both within the parish.

The parish is thought to have been first established in the 6th. century when the church of St. Petroc is alleged to have been built on the site. St Petrox, Petroc or Petrock, lived between c 468 and c 564 and ministered to the Celtic Dumnonian Britons of Devon and Cornwall. A church certainly did exist on that site before the 11th. century when the Premonstratensian Canons came over from the Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire and founded in 1196 the Torre Abbey, about 10 minutes walk away, when it was then renamed “St.Saviour's” by the monks.

The population of Tor Mohun was around 200 by the time of Domesday in 1086. The first St Saviour’s lies buried beneath Torre Abbey.

Further evidence of the original designation of the church comes from the demise of John Bartlett in 1485. In his will he states:

“I, John Bartlett, leave my soul to Almighty God and my body to be buried in the church or cemetery of Saint Petroc of Torremone”. John’s gravestone is the oldest we have.

It seems, therefore, that St Petrox was renamed as St Saviour’s hundreds of years after the establishment of Torre Abbey.

St Saviour’s. The ancient Parish Church of Tormoham, was declared redundant by the Church Authorities in the 1960s and is now the Greek Orthodox Church of St Andrew. Said to have been built in the 14th century, on the site of an earlier Norman chapel, the parish was part of the property of Torre Abbey until the disillusionment of the Abbeys in 1539 but much renovated in 1849 and enlarged in 1874.

The Cary family builded the more modern part of it in 1553.

In 1867 the vicar of St Saviour’s Church in Torre had a drinking fountain constructed just outside his churchyard. He called it Efride’s Well. The inscription read:

“Erected AD 1867 by the Rev John James Vicar and incumbent of this parish. Let him that is athirst come.”

St Petrox Well was renamed and became Efride’s Well. ‘Efride’ is probably derived from the Old English ‘efre’ meaning ‘ever’. So the appellation is something like ‘ever-running spring’. Later, in times less theologically troubled, Efrides seems have attracted the spurious ‘St’ prefix, as in St Efride’s Road. There isn’t, however, a historical St Efride. It may be that the well’s association with the church gave someone the notion that Efride was a real Saxon celebrity; or the name just appealed to the Victorian mythos of an idealised time before the imposition of the cruel Norman yoke.

Alas, no matter the truth behind the naming of the “everflowing stream”, it flows no more. The spring has ceased to issue from beneath the limestone tor that gave Torquay its name.

Perhaps it was the coming of the railway in 1859 that diverted the subterranean flow, or the construction of buildings nearby. Whatever the cause, the aqueous mother of Torquay dried up in around 1860.

Nowadays.

The church has not been used since the 1960s. The last burial in the graveyard was in 1895. 

Panayiotis (Peter) Skrivanos moved to England from Chios (Greece) after WWII. He married an English lady who gave birth to Robert Skrivanos in 1945. Panayiotis had three Cypriot friends – Ioakim Pamboris (Ιωακείμ Παμπόρης), George Loizides (Γιώργος Λοϊζίδης) and Andreas Lemonides (Ανδρέας Λεμονίδης) – the four proprietors who established an Orthodox parish in the Torbay area. 

Panayiotis had a priest friend from Southampton Archimandrite Plotinus Agritellis (Πλωτίνος Αγριτέλλης) whom he would invite to serve at the big feasts. At that time, the local parish didn’t have a special venue for the services. 

In 1969, they hired the church of St John the Apostle, which is in the centre of the town. The first parish was established there with the trustees mentioned above. Robert Skrivanos was only 24 years old when his father asked him to help renovate the church. However, the problem was that the Orthodox parish needed to prioritise the Anglican services. They could not perform the Paschal services several times, so the need for a new church arose. At the time, in 1976, St Saviour’s church was empty. So, negotiations started with the Church Commissioners for England. While still negotiating, services began, but the final covenant was signed on 15 October 1984. The Orthodox parish owns just the building, not the alley, not the graveyard. The church has never been given an Orthodox consecration; it is a Grade II listed building. Archbishop Gregorios (1988-2019) visited several times the church. 

In 1984, the original proprietors remained, but Andreas Nikolaou, Kyriakos Augoustis, and Kostas Theodoulous were “the purchasers” of the church. Andreas is still alive (in 2024). The church was bought for £5000 when the average cost for a house in the area was £2500.

Andreas Eleftheriou became chairman in 1996 after Panayiotis passed away. The next chairman was Andreas Loizidis, followed by Hristos Komodromos. After Hristos, Matheos Vorras took over as chairman. Matheos passed away in church in 2019. Since then, the chairman has been Robert Skrivanos.

The first priest to serve in the church was Fr Christoforos Papasozomenos (Χριστόφορος Παπασωζόμενος), a refugee in 1977 from Cyprus. He served between 1979 and 1981. Fr. Panayiotis Hamòdrakas from Greece followed him.

In 1984, Father Gregory-Palamas Carpenter took over. An old monk priest Hieromonk Spyridon Maikautis (Mekàvtis) from Mt Athos living in Southampton visited frequently. Priest Trayan Goranov (Bulgarian) was invited by Protoprsbyter Gregory-Palamas Carpenter (Plymouth) to share paternal responsibilities in Torquay in 2018. From 2024 Fr Trayan is the official Priest-in-Charge of St. Andrew’s parish. Matheos Vorràs was the only psaltis until he passed away in 2019. After his passing, Michelle Gallaher from Exeter established the choir.

On 21 and 22 September 2024 Archbishop Nikitas Lulias of Thyateira visited the parish. There was Vespers in the church and after that a reception just for the trusties. Next day in full church there was Matins and Liturgy, presided by the Archbishop with the participation of Fr Trayan, Priest-in-Charge, and Deacon Dr George Tsourous. At the end of the Liturgy the pious man Charlie (Arsenios) Copleston was tonsured a reader, and Robert Skrivanos was awarded the Medal Cross of the Holy Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, in recognition of his dedicated service and generous support to the Torquay parish over 55 years. Following the Divine Liturgy and a shared meal, Archbishop Nikitas engaged with the parishioners in an interactive discussion, further deepening the connection between the clergy and the community.

Currently, in 2024, the committee members are:

Robert Skrivanos – chairman

George Papanicola – treasurer

Nikos Nicolaou – vice-chairman

Savva Savvas – member

Alexandra Hannide – chairman of Ladies’ committee.

Maria Papanicola – member

Charalambia Skrivanos – member

Stanka (Tania) Georgieva – represent of the Bulgarian community.