Milo Boyd from the Mirror’s travel desk headed down to Brixham in Torbay, Devon to check out the town’s pub, restaurant, fishing and music scene over a long October weekend
Mirror Travel’s Milo Boyd visits the ‘drinking town with a fishing problem’
Brixham is a small town on the Devon coast that may be the perfect place to go on holiday.
That’s because it is not your typical UK seaside destination. It is a whole lot more interesting, prettier and unexpected than that.
Historians will tell you that William of Orange first put Brixham on the map when he landed his army there in 1688, before marching off to London to claim the throne and mark the Glorious Revolution as a “big success”.
A short 111 years later, Parliament approved the construction of its fish market, which grew to be the biggest in England. Back then, 270 sail-operated decked trawlers and 1,600 seamen battled the elements to land thousands of tonnes of fish, which steam trains chugged up the railways to the Capital.
Today, a post-Covid online auction system means buyers across the world order some of the £25 million of catch landed annually at England’s most valuable fish market.
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But for me, and I suspect most holidaymakers who visit Brixham, it isn’t the royal connection or fishing that make the town an excellent place to visit. It’s Brixham’s beauty, and how much locals love to party.
On the beauty front, the good looks of Brixham are undeniable. My wife and I stayed in the Petite Maison apartments above the quayside, meaning we awoke each morning to the bucolic scene of fishing boats bobbing on water lit up by the rising sun like a rainbow oil slick.
Brixham climbs up 100m on both of the quay, with rows of cottages perched on the hillside. Traditionally, these were painted different colours so sailors could find their way home on poor visibility days at sea (or so a cabby told us). In recent years, the Light Up Brixham community group has encouraged homeowners to turn their properties pastel. The effect is an exceptionally pretty place that looks more than a little like Balamory.
While most will visit during the summer when Brixham’s quayside chippies, rock shops and arcades are fully staffed and bustling, a winter stay is an intriguing option.
Thanks to Light Up Brixham, the town is bejewelled in Christmas lights throughout the festive season, turning it into a blinking beacon of fairy lights and waving Santas that returning fishermen would struggle to miss even on the stormiest of nights.
In November, the town gathers to remember those who have died on the waves, paying their respects to the sound of Abide With Me, which was written by local Reverend Henry Francis Lyte weeks before his death.
“One of the most moving moments of the year for me is Remembrance Sunday when the town band plays Abide With Me and it coincides with the lifeboat going out to sea to lay a wreath for the merchant navy seamen lost at sea,” explains local Paul Jolly on the Brixham Today podcast.
Trips to Brixham have changed quite a lot in recent years. The town was home to three holiday parks, including a Pontins, which closed in 2014 and was subsequently destroyed by an arson attack. Today, long caravanning breaks have been swapped for weekend stays in Airbnbs and guest houses.
But that doesn’t mean that the lively heart of Brixham won’t be opened to you. Community is found in plentiful supply in the town’s pubs, which are some of the booziest and most raucous I’ve visited in a long time.
On Friday night, local funk duo The Schofields brought The Bullers alive, coaxing punters into makeshift Cossack dancing with a slap-bass version of Rasputin. A day later, guitarist Oli Syrett inspired those in the Golden Anchor to provide backing vocals to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. After he finished off the set with an acoustic cover of Insomnia, we headed to Liberty – a cocktail bar where they’ll emboss a picture of your wife’s face onto her drink for just £1.50.
The merrymaking continued in less obvious spots. To coincide with the Tory Party Conference in Manchester, my wife and I decided to break the habit of a lifetime when in Rome and visit the Brixham Conservative Club.
There, the 80- and 90-year-old players of Odds and Ends brass band delivered a mix of 60s and 70s classics as punters necked £3.50 pints and disco lights swirled.
Our trip into the foreign political lands came to a sudden end when two friendly men from Herefordshire sandwiched us on the banquette, asked if we were “young Tories” and then explained why Keir Starmer was “rotten to the core”.
My wife and I escaped for dinner at the charming Olive on the seafront. The small plates restaurant has a lively atmosphere, a very extensive wine list, and perhaps the best fried halloumi I’ve ever had.
The next morning we shook off our hangovers and headed out to sea at 6.50 am aboard the Dolphin Explorer, for a fry-up and some porpoise spotting – all for £12.50. We’d been invited along by a charming local we met during an incredibly boozy bar and restaurant crawl in Torquay the day before.
“It’s my birthday in two weeks,” she explained while filling up four glasses with fizz as the sun rose above the horizon. “What people need to know about Brixham is it’s a drinking town with a fishing problem.”