Protea

We went to a blue plaque unveiling this afternoon. The plaque was on a lovely old villa (see extra) now owned by the former Elected Mayor of Torbay, who sponsored the plaque. We don’t have an elected Mayor nowadays. The plaque honours Arthur Milner, who lived here from 1955-65. He was an industrialist and manufacturer in the Midlands, who retired to Torbay in 1952, but retained his commercial interests in his former companies.
  He was a keen football follower  and in 1954 he joined the board of Torquay United, becoming Chairman in the same year, and steering the club through a successful period. Apparently he described Torquay United as a bottomless well, Nobody knows how much money he threw into it to save the club.
The property dates from the 1880s. A prominent former resident was the Rev. Seneca Winter, a religious author who married the owner of the property Mary Morgan in 1886. It later became the home of Thomas and Mary Hoyle, proprietors of the Palace Theatre in Plymouth following their marriage in 1924.
Protea is a genus of South African flowering plants , also called sugar bushes.
We only went in one room downstairs but that was pretty vast. Interesting afternoon.