Preston Green

Preston Green is adjacent to the Preston Beach. There is a café and some floral features. Preston Green provides the perfect and safe space for children's play.

Strange to relate this to the scene many years ago, when troops were trained there, in the art of trench warfare, ready for the action in the First World War.

Prior to this, the Redcliffe Estate had looked at the possibility of building 14 houses along Preston Green. Instead, Paris Singer of the Singer sewing machine empire built an aeroplane hangar on the site. This hangar stored three seaplanes which took visitors on trips around the Bay, after the First World War. The cost of these fun trips was for 25 shillings. The planes were brought down the slipway near the site of the present café on Preston Green, and taxied along to Paignton Pier, where passengers climbed aboard for their short flights.

In December 1920, following the cessation of hostilities after the Great War, two German destroyers were under tow for a final destination up the Channel to Teignmouth to be scrapped. During a violent storm, they broke away from the towlines and the ships were washed up onto the Paignton coastline. One went aground at Roundham and the remains of its boilers can still be seen at very low tide. The other was beached at Preston. Attempts to remove it were later thwarted, so the boat was cut in half and the stern was later man handled away, in small portions. The remaining Bow portion became a local landmark and "rested in peace" for several years until scrap metal merchants eventually removed it.

In 1920, Preston Green was landscaped for use as a recreational area. Tennis courts were constructed. The café was built just prior to the Second World War and still is still there to this day.

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