Post by Dave on Feb 25, 2019 18:53:30 GMT
The Changing Face Of Brixham Road 25th Feb 2019
While I was born in Newton Abbot and grew up there, I moved to Torbay in my early twenties. I lived in Torquay for a number of years before ending up in Paignton some thirty years or so ago. Most of that time I have lived in the Brixham Road area that has completely change beyond recognition over the years since I first lived here.
For a start the road up from the Tweenaway lights only had two lanes and on the right hand side going up it was lined with trees with gaps in between that was used for car parking. Over the years that section of the Brixham Road has been widened a number of time s and now it’s a four land road and opens up into six lanes as you approach the traffic lights.
Further up the road on the junction of Borough Road a KFC was build and across the road the old DIY store became a Asda store. But it is further up the road where all the big real changes have happened.
Between the Asda and Sainsbury store roadworks have been going on for over a year and looking at the progress myself today, it all looks a long way away from being finished and time soon.
By the Sainsbury turning we now have a McDonalds; this site was once a wine wholesale seller and then used as a second hand car sales. A bit further up many will remember the old garden centre that had a canvas roof. I used to buy all my tropical fish from the lovely helpful couple who ran that part of the garden centre.
But that is long gone and on the site we now find a Aldi supermarket and housing. That is the story all the way up to the brow of the hill now, where once was the entrance to the Holly Gruit Campsite.
Many will remember the Nortel site that once had a large social club that was a very popular venue this very large site went from the brow of the hill to Long Road and a fair way along that road.
Nortel was a strange affair, one second it was recruiting hundreds of new staff and then it was gone, this left one of the biggest eyesores in Paignton for a good many years. At last it was cleared and new large retail units are currently under construction, but behind those new units are going to be hundreds of new houses.
On the other corner of Long Road a Premier Inn was build with a Beefeater Restaurant next door and the next site along there was once a nightclub that in its heyday was very popular. It closed and later was reopened again for a short while, but then remained empty again for years.
That building was also knocked down and under construction on that site right now is a very large looking building. It’s going to be a Electronics & Photonics Centre. Right next door is the brand new Lidi Store; one wonders just how many supermarkets Paignton really needs.
There is another new large housing estate next to Lidi and all behind it and I think they are still building houses there. From there to Windy Corner it is as it always was, but I would expect in years to come we will see houses being built in the fields on the right hand side all the way to Windy Corner.
When I set off for today’s photo shoot I was on the right hand side of Brixham Road and soon found out that due to the roadwork’s the footpath ends at the Sainsbury turning. I had to go into the car park and cross the road using the footbridge only to then find out I had to walk through a part of the Roselands Estate to get back onto the Brixham Road.
The benefits of all the road improvements around Tweenaway lights and the ones still going on, will soon be lost when the new retail stores open and all the house building is finally finished. I always wonder who can afford these new houses these days, but they always seem to get sold.
