Hi. This period of isolation has given me the chance to look again at a mystery that I had to put on the back burner for a while.
I live in White Street in Topsham and am researching the street which is right in the middle of the town with the bottom nearly at the quay. White Street used to have a bad reputation being so close to the docks and was largely lived in by the families of the fishermen and mariners.
At the bottom of the street next to the Quay master's house there is a wiggle in the already tiny road that means a lot of cars and larger vehicles can't get through. It is possible that the 'wiggle' was where two of the houses joined over the road to form an arch or gateway a long time ago. There is a building called Abbey Hall/Building which held dances, a basic library for the residents and then became the White Ensign Club. Next to it are three cottages built in 1894 called Abbey Buildings.
With all of the information available I have still failed to find any reference to any real Abbey or why the buildings were given this name, I can't find any reference to Topsham having an Abbey. The lovely Abbey Hall/Building is also a mystery and i am trying to find out who built it, when and why.
Isolation has given me the time to look into this but of course not the ability to access the archives so I was wondering if anyone can shed any light on this.
Any help would be great, it would be good to use this enforced time at home to crack this one.
Thanks
Alison
