Dawlish Discussion

With so much discussion on the pros and cons of regeneration and comparison with other towns (such as Teignmouth) it is interesting that such debate has entertained the good burghers of these towns long before Dawlish.com existed.

The following is an extract from a letter written in 1795 from Robert Jordan, businessman of Teignmouth, to Sir James Wright .......

"I am sorry to inform you that Teignmouth House temains untenanted as is the case with all the large houses in Teignmouth ..... It seems strange that the beautiful and variegated views and scenes around and the fine, open, pure air of Teignmouth should be forsaken for the contracted views and the confined air of Dawlish - but so it is - for Dawlish is at this time quite full of lodgers"

What goes around comes around.

Along similar lines, when Stokes arrived in Dawlish there were already 4 Greengrocers, all closed down within 18 months mainly because they couldn't compete with Stoke's prices. Then Stoke's prices increased, quite a few people from Dawlish used to buy from Stokes in Teignmouth as they were cheaper than Dawlish, ie no competition here. Now people 'feeling sorry' for Stokes due the the arrival of Sainsburys, history does indeed repeat itself.

Stokes Dawlish is owned by somebody different than teignmouth, they were all sold when Stokes went into administration

Yep, but that was recently, nothing to do with the time that Stokes opened in Dawlish and Teignmouth, at that time Stokes were a big group with 92 stores and a Head Office in Bristol.